Lloyd Stoess
Palouse Falls Chapter President I grew up on a wheat farm 8 miles from Palouse Falls but didn’t learn about the Ice Age Floods until I attended EWSC where I graduated in 1974 with a BA in Geography. After college, I returned to Washtucna to work with my father in our agricultural equipment family business where I still work today. Married for 47 years with 4 children and 5 grandchildren. I was introduced to the IAFI in 2001 and became a charter member of the Cheney-Palouse Chapter and helped found the Palouse Falls Chapter in 2015. In addition to the IAFI, I am involved with the local church, Lions Club, Adams County Economic Development Council, and the Washtucna Heritage Museum – Community Center and food bank.
Charles Hall
Lower Columbia Chapter President Since our previous president, Rick Thompson, retired for a move to Georgia, I have accepted to be Interim President of the Lower Columbia Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute. I was instrumental in forming the Lower Columbia Chapter because I found the story of the Ice Age Floods to be so interesting and compelling. With my many years in marketing I feel our chapter plays an important part in sharing the Flood Story with our community and the world at large.
Lloyd DeKay
Columbia River Gorge Chapter President IAFI Webmaster, Newsletter Editor I have a BA in Earth Sciences (CSUN), an MS in Geological Oceanography (URI-GSO). I worked 27 years on international exploration projects throughout the world with Gulf/Chevron before retiring and moving to the Columbia Gorge with my wife in 2007. I joined IAFI in 2008 to learn more about this wonderful place and volunteered to co-lead field trips with Terry Hurd, Columbia River Gorge Chapter president, until Terry’s death in 2015. I then took on the chapter presidency and have since advocated strongly for technology solutions to improve board communications and recordkeeping. I have redesigned the IAFI website including development of a unique interactive flood features map, revamped the IAFI newsletter, developed a new series of IAFI chapter brochures, organized the IAFI YouTube channel, developed the first IAFI exhibit booth for the 2021 Geological Society of America Convention, and am developing a series of IAFI field guides highlighting Floods and Ice Age features throughout the Pacific NW. I am similarly active in our local community as co-founder of Community Partners Bingen-White Salmon and Columbia Gorge Arts and Culture Alliance, and I’m deeply involved in the planning for a new community pool. I also co-lead field trips for OSU’s Gorge Master Naturalist Program and maintain several websites including the Oregon Nordic Club website (ONC.org). I would love to have help with developing, expanding, improving and promoting Gorge Chapter activities. If you have any suggestions or interest you can contact me at IAFI.CGC@gmail.com
Melanie Bell Gibbs
IAFI Director, ExCom Member My family moved from beautiful Northeast Texas to the Spokane area to teach and work at Eastern Washington University. We raised four children on a sheep ranch east of Cheney where a rock ledge captivated EWU students as geology faculty lectured about how those rocks were a part of the Ice Age Floods story. We joined IAFI and the Cheney-Spokane Chapter and began an interesting journey learning about the Floods. Since January 2007, I served both IAFI and the Cheney-Spokane Chapter as secretary, treasurer, and executive committee while focusing on recruiting sponsors and partners, membership management, grant writing, and revenue streaming. I am now past-president of the Cheney-Spokane Chapter.
Patty Hurd
IAFI Store Manager My husband Terry and I moved to the Columbia River Gorge in 1993 and were struck by its beauty. We signed up for a field trip with the Lower Columbia chapter one weekend in 1995, drove almost two hours to board the bus in Tualatin, then drove three hours back up the gorge (practically past our front door) to learn more about our own geology and the impact of the Ice Age floods, then back to Tualatin and the drive home. Ter thought that there should be a closer IAFI chapter and waited patiently for someone to start one, but since no one stepped forward, he did it himself. I tagged along with him to board meetings until one time in about 2013 when I had something else planned, but when he got home, he informed me that he had “volunteered” me for store manager. After he died in 2015, the love and support from the board and members helped me decide to stay in that position, and here I still am, and loving it most of the time(except when it is time to do reports). I enjoy staying at home, so the current situation hasn’t been a strain. Our three daughters live close enough for occasional visits and lots of phone calls. I was a member of Sweet Adelines for 20+ years and sang tenor in several quartets, have studied classical music as a coloratura soprano until this past year, am a member of the Oregon/southwest Washington chapter of MENSA, and retired in 2013 from teaching and doing social service work with Head Start.
Monte Nail
IAFI Treasurer I was born and raised on a farm in Hansen Idaho, graduated from the University of Idaho and after a ten year stint with a private company, went into public accounting. I was asked to join Ice Age Floods while on a bus field trip in 2004. I became the Treasurer following Jim Prichard and have been helping maintain their finances ever since.