Dziubas make major gift to EES

Shortly after Eastern launched the Founders of Environmental Earth Science (EES) Endowed Fund about 11 years ago to assist EES majors doing advanced work in the major, Jim Dziuba ’79 made a generous four-year commitment to the new fund. He has continued to support the fund, and over the past two and a half years has become its top donor.

Now retired in Washington State, Jim and his wife Judy recently made a six-figure provision for EES in their estate plan.

After graduating from Eastern, Jim earned a master’s degree in Water Resources Management at the University of Wisconsin, then returned to Connecticut to work in the Department of Environmental Protection. After three years, he moved on to a management role at Groundwater Inc.

in Middletown, a firm that later became Marin Environmental in Haddam, where he worked from 1987 to 2001. In 2002, he became a senior manager at GeoInsight, working on landfill and site development projects for public and commercial clients. Jim also taught a few courses for his old department at Eastern, as well as foundation courses in Earth and Environmental Science at Manchester Community College. He retired from GeoInsight in 2010 and from teaching in 2014, and he and Judy moved to Washington.

The fund Jim supports is named after professors Ray Smith, Henry Snider and Sherman Clebnik, who launched a pioneering new major that was a blend of geology, environmental science and the physical sciences. Smith and Snider are deceased, but Clebnik, who was Jim’s academic advisor and friend, remains in Connecticut and regularly supports the fund.

Jim is a grateful alumnus. He wants to see the department thrive and see students charting successful career paths. He appreciates the important role his Eastern education had in giving him a productive life, and how well the EES faculty taught and guided him. “To me it is obvious that my Eastern experience, specifically with the Earth Science department, provided me invaluable opportunities. The professors, who guided me quite well, opened the path for the positive experience I had in the working world.”