A memorial service celebrating the life of environmental eminence Dr. James Malcom Earhart, a bellwether advocate for the Río Grande and its watershed and ecosystem, will be held on the riverbanks of Tres Laredos Park on Saturday, May 13 at 10 a.m. The public is welcome to attend.
Dr. Earhart, who died March 26, 2023 at his home in Hillsboro, was a biology instructor at Laredo Community College from 1967 to 1999, and was a founder of the non-profit Río Grande International Study Center (RGISC).
Saturday’s event begins after a guided one-hour river paddle from the Laredo Water Museum to Tres Laredos Park.
The Cigarroa High School Honor Guard will present colors at the memorial. The Laredo Veterans Honor Guard will recognize Dr. Earhart’s service as a U.S. Army Reservist with a 21-gun salute.
A native of Hawkins, Texas, Dr. Earhart earned a BBA at North Texas State University, a Masters at Texas Tech, and a doctorate in molecular biology at North Texas State University.
He founded the Rio Grande International Study Center in 1994 with Pamela and Dr. Tom Vaughan, Dr. Jacinto Juarez, and a handful of like-minded advocates for a river considered one of the 10 most endangered in the world.
His educational efforts, which inspired many students to pursue degrees in biology, medicine, and the environment, had an incalculable reach far beyond the classroom to other educators; city, county, state, and federal officials; and those who had the good fortune to work alongside him as he relentlessly formulated environmental policy that would become the City of Laredo’s Haz Mat Ordinance, that introduced the establishment of the City’s Environmental Services Department, and that became the City’s Green Space Ordinance.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Maggie Etta Ruth Moon Earhart and Cone Johnson Earhart, and his first wife, Glenda Joy Roderick.
Dr. Earhart is survived by his wife Rukmani Kuppuswami; children Dr. James M Earhart Jr. (Clare) of Hillsboro and Judith Earhart Cutting of Monterey, CA; grandchildren Ashley, Nathaniel, and Timothy Earhart, and Christina Momdijan and Steven Cutting; and great-grandchildren Alexis, Beau, and Maya.
I had the privilege to work with Dr. Earhart on stories and photo documentation of the degradation of the river – USBP’s random and unfettered defoliation and erosion of the banks that conveyed tonnage of choking silt into the Rio Grande, developers who sought to squeeze every last square foot from a tract by re-routing the course of tributaries to the river, and the disregard of local and state government slow on the draw to enforce their own ordinances and statutes to protect the only source of drinking water for millions of border residents.
These are the true things I know about Jim Earhart, a man who played guitar and sang around the campfire:
• He was kind, noble, grateful for a life of purpose and service, one who often advised there was more to gain with decorum at the City Council podium than with barbed language.
• The river had become a song in his heart.
“USBP’s random and unfettered defoliation and erosion of the banks that conveyed tonnage of choking silt into the Rio Grande.” I’ve noticed many articles from LaredoDos spewing leftist gibberish, like the one above. Is Carrizo Cane native to the US? What happened to your so-called plan, to have wasps introduced in order to eat the Carrizo Cane? You don’t have the guts to talk about the unfiltered sewage released on the Mexican side of the El Tonto neighborhood.