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Dr.
Forrest Council retires from directorship of HSRC
HSRC loses a director but
gains a colleague
story contents:
introduction | why engineering?
| projects & research | being
the boss
Dr.
Forrest Council says goodbye as director. |
Introduction
When Dr. Forrest Council began working at the UNC Highway Safety Research
Center back in 1967, he felt like he had landed "a good summer job"
to earn some money and get some work experience before going back to
graduate school that fall.
"At that point, I didn't know what I was going to do," he said.
Only someone with a very good crystal ball could have told the 22-year-old
N.C. State University graduate student that he would make his career
at HSRC and would one day become it's director. This year, after 31
years at the Center and more than six years as it's director, Council
has retired.
"I want to see what it's like to have an extra day off during the week,"
he said.
Just one extra day off each week? Well, yes. That's because Council
plans to continue his highway safety research on a part-time basis with
HSRC and also work with Bellomo-McGee, Inc., a consulting firm based
in Washington D.C.
On that extra day off, you'll most likely find him on the golf course.
"My personal goal is to play more golf and enjoy life more," he said.
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Why engineering?
It was Council's father who encouraged him to pursue engineering. Willard
Council was the town manager of Fuquay Springs, a small town about 15
miles south of Raleigh. He also coached varsity football, basketball
and baseball in the town's school.
"There was no question in his mind what I should be," said Council,
who holds a PhD in civil engineering from N.C. State University. "He
also had a very strong opinion about what I shouldn't be, which was
a coach and a town manager. As town manager, he worked with engineers
who did work for the town. He really saw the advantage of having an
engineering degree. He thought it was a very important profession where
you could do good things."
In fact, the profession has turned out to be that for Council. One of
the best things about working at the Center has been the opportunity
"to make a difference," he said.
"There aren't a lot of places where you really think you might make
a difference. But we've affected policy since I've been here, and we've
done it in areas where we can measure the results in terms of reduced
numbers of crashes and injuries. That's really exciting," he said. "The
two efforts I feel most proud to have worked on have been the child
restraint law and programs that went with it, and the seat belt programs
that we helped put into place."
HSRC was instrumental in getting the child restraint law and adult seat
belt law passed in North Carolina in the 1980's. HSRC research regarding
the safety benefits of restraints helped convince legislators of the
importance of such laws. Later, HSRC research helped other states pass
similar laws.
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Projects & research
Throughout his career, Council has worked on a variety of other projects
including roadway design studies and research examining the role of
alcohol in motor vehicle crashes. He developed a graduate-level transportation
safety course for UNC city planning students along with Dr. Asad Khattak
of the UNC-CH Department of City and Regional Planning.
Over the past twelve years, his work has focused on leading the development
of, and conducting research with the multi-state database known as the
"Highway Safety Information System" or "HSIS." Funded by the Federal
Highway Administration, this first-of-a-kind information system contains
roadway data from 8 states and is used to calculate crash risk related
to roadway design.
For many years now, Council has also been part of the Center's administrative
team. In the early 1980's, he was named deputy director of HSRC. After
the retirement of Founding Director Dr. B.J. Campbell in 1991, he was
named interim director, and then in 1993, he was appointed director.
"He has a great breadth and depth of experience in many topic areas
in highway safety, and I think he's been a good steward of the interests
of the Center," Campbell said.
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Being the boss
Being director has been rewarding, Council conceded.
"The nice thing about being director of HSRC is you get the prestige
of HSRC. You get to represent this institution, and that pushes you
into things that you probably wouldn't get to do as just an individual
researcher," he said. But being director has also been challenging,
he said.
"You never know what it's like to be the boss until you are the boss,"
he said. "Many of us who work at the Center have been here for a lot
of years. We kind of grew up together, and not only worked together
but socialized together. I think it was a loss for me when I became
director because it's really difficult to have the same type of friendship
being someone's boss as you do being co-workers. If I had gone someplace
totally new to be director and hadn't known anybody there, it might
have been different, but I don't think so. I think I still would have
had the same feelings about the same difficulties."
Balancing research and administrative responsibilities has also been
demanding, he said.
"The challenge has been that both of those jobs want you more than 50
percent during any given week," he said. "For me, it was the right mix
to do both. If I had given up all my research, I don't think I would
have been happy. But frankly, part of the reason I'm retiring is that
I'm tired of the stress of balancing the two."
"It's time for a change," he added. "I'll be very happy to let someone
else take over the administrative weight. I think that'll be good for
me and good for the Center as well. And quite honestly, I'm really looking
forward to working again as a colleague with the other people on staff."
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