Harold M. Englund
Born on November 21, 1926, in Orange, NJ, son of Martin J. and Agnes E. Jackson Englund, he served in the U.S. Navy as an aviation radioman, 2nd Class, during World War II. He later received a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Newark College of Engineering and studied at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. Upon graduating college, he married Ruth E. Alford and they had three children: Jeffrey, Carolyn, and Cynthia.
In 1950, Englund joined Thomas A. Edison Inc. in West Orange, NJ, as a staff engineer. Then in 1957, he took a position with Industrial Press in New York City, as managing editor of the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Ventilating magazine, where he worked until April 1965 when he moved to Pittsburgh and took over the editorship of JAPCA.
In 1965, JAPCA was already 14 years old, the first issue having been published in July 1951, under the title Air Repair, by the then 44-year-old Air Pollution and Smoke Prevention Association of America. JAPCA soon evolved under Englund’s tenure, growing from a 64-page monthly magazine dealing with air pollution control to a 120-page peer-review technical publication covering all environmental media.
As Editor and the Association’s Director of Publications, he enhanced and formalized the peer-review process to assure the improvement and quality of the published papers. He also encouraged authors of the best papers he saw presented at the annual meetings to submit their manuscripts to JAPCA. When he became editor in 1965, only one-third of the almost 100 manuscripts published annually were papers that had been written exclusively for JAPCA. By 1975, well over half of the 150 papers published each year were original manuscripts, submitted as technical papers, feature articles, or notes.
Englund was a good friend to many Association members and JAPCA contributors who would solicit his advice and guidance in presenting the results of their research and experience. Though he formally retired in 1993, he continued to be an active presence at the headquarters staff office in Pittsburgh, regularly contributing articles to EM Magazine, until only a few years ago when his health deteriorated. He was once quoted as saying, “Being an Editor (capital ‘E’) is the best and most rewarding job there is!”
Englund was a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and a Diplomat in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. In addition to his many accomplishments as editor of JAPCA, he co-edited and contributed to the Handbook of Air Pollution Technology (John Wiley & Sons, 1984).
Englund was active with Boy Scouts of America, serving as a scout master for more than 40 years, and was an avid photographer and a founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Lens Shooters, where he served multiple terms as president. He was active with Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Arden, as well as the McMurray Art League, and enjoyed traveling the world, always with his camera by his side.
Englund was the beloved husband of Ruth; loving father of Jeffrey R. Englund, Carolyn R. (Robert) Cronk, and the late Cynthia S. Englund; grandfather of Wesley A. Cronk; and brother of Judy Englund Kastelein and the late David Englund.