In Memoriam: Robert Young Nelson, 1937–2024
Following a brief illness, Robert (Bob) Young Nelson, PhD, CHP, CIH, FAIHA, died on Dec. 19, 2024, in Norman, Oklahoma. Bob was born and raised in northern Louisiana as the third son of George G. and Lilley Y. Nelson. At Bossier High School, Bob lettered in baseball, basketball, and football, and was the valedictorian of his class. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science with his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and master’s degree in sanitary engineering. In 1964, at the age of 26, he earned his PhD in civil engineering from the University of Texas.
Bob returned to the University of Oklahoma in the early 1960s, where he taught courses in industrial hygiene, health physics, and engineering. As a registered professional engineer and certified health physicist, he secured major funding to provide training grants to many health physics students. He often piled students into his station wagon and drove them cross-country to attend health physics meetings, going to extraordinary efforts to ensure the comfort and safety of all students at a time when segregation was still widespread. In 1978, he relocated to the OU Health Sciences Center, where he continued to influence many more master’s and PhD students of occupational and environmental health. He retired as associate professor, emeritus, from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in 2000. In addition to the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students he taught in the university classroom, Bob reached thousands more in the short-course venue. He was particularly effective in training laboratory personnel at nearly all of EPA’s regional and research labs across the country.
As one of the first professors and practitioners of industrial hygiene in Oklahoma, and possibly its first certified industrial hygienist, Bob helped lay the foundation of IH practice in the state. As a result of his dedication to students and excellence in industrial hygiene practice, Bob received the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Local Section of AIHA.
Bob’s contribution to industrial hygiene in Oklahoma extended beyond the classroom. He served as secretary of OK-AIHA in its early years and was a Fellow of AIHA. He set a high standard of quality for industrial hygiene consulting at a time when there were only a handful of consultants in Oklahoma. His intellectual contributions include a dose-response methodology for the World Health Organization to link occupational noise exposure to the rate of noise-induced hearing loss.
Bob loved his Jack Russell dogs, camping, the mountains, and doing his own work around the house. There were few things that he could not master. He raised three sons and two daughters, all of whom have earned graduate degrees in the sciences and who inherited his great love of the outdoors. In addition, he is survived by his older brother, eleven grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, and countless grateful students.
A graveside service was held at the IOOF Cemetery on Dec. 28, 2024. Donations may be made to Norman Animal Welfare, 3428 Jenkins Ave., Norman, OK 73072.
