Third in Line

Pete Melby, a Professor of Landscape Architecture, is married and has two children. He taught landscape architecture courses at Mississippi State University for 32 years, focusing on Construction Materials, and Design of Sustainable Communities. His research included authoring a text for design of irrigation systems at the request of the landscape contracting industry. Simplified Irrigation Design was first published by John Wiley and Sons in 1998. A second edition is now available which also focuses on water conservation through the application of drip irrigation technology. Along with Edward C. Martin, Jr. Melby wrote Home Landscapes, Planting Design and Management. Editors at John Wiley and Sons in New York requested in the year 2000 that a book on Sustainability be developed. The pioneering text, Regenerative Design Techniques, by Pete Melby and Tom Cathcart explained how to design energy conserving buildings and landscapes. That collaboration stimulated the team to work together evaluating eroding beaches along the Gulf Coast and demonstrating how management of a sand beach could be carried out through relying on natural wind and weather cycles. A model beach evolved that proved how sbeaches could rely on the daily provision of sand from tides and wind. Deposition of large amounts of sand and native beach plants occurred during storms. Through the establishment of a salt marsh and native plants to create sand dunes, the beach became stabilized and grew in sand volume and width. Melby and Cathcart were honored as Gulf Guardians by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002. In 2018, Professor Melby was awarded the State Conservation Award and Medal by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.