12/02/2002

Long-Time Electronics Wonder-Worker to Retire From AAES

AUBURN, Ala. — Research scientists with the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) know Charles Meadows’ work number by heart. For more than two decades, when equipment glitches have stymied their research projects, Meadows has been the man they’ve called to the rescue.

But Meadows will take that last call for help later this year, when he retires from almost 21 years as analytical instrumentation manager for the AAES. That’s a role in which he has built a reputation, not only for working technological wonders on ailing research equipment, but also for designing and constructing pieces of equipment—or entire systems, for that matter—that either were not available in the marketplace or were too costly to purchase.

“Research Instrumentation has been pretty innovative,” Meadows said of the crucial research equipment his in-house support department has developed for AAES researchers in every field. “And we’ve done it at a token of the cost of what it would have cost on the market.

“That’s always been our goal here: Give ’em more than they ask for, for less money than they thought it would cost.”

As a result, Meadows and his Research Instrumentation department have helped the AAES cut costs and get more mileage out of its research dollars.

“Take your soil moisture probes,” Meadows said. “We’ve probably made a thousand of those, just as good as the ones you’d buy, and we put them together for $3 or $4 each. On the market, you’d pay a good $30 for one.”

Meadows, a Reeltown native and a natural-born tinkerer, embarked on his electronics career as soon as he finished high school, first boning up on the field at a technical school in Dothan. In the early 1970s, after having owned his own appliance sales and repair business in Dadeville for several years, he went to work for OrrTronics in Opelika. He had been there for six years when, in 1979, he landed a job with Auburn University, as an electronics technician in the aerospace engineering department.

Four years later, Meadows moved across campus to his job at Comer Hall, where initially his sole responsibility was to keep AAES’s mass spectrometer—a crucial piece of equipment for running chemical analyses—in top-notch condition. So adept was he at that duty that soon he had time to start repairing other pieces of lab and field equipment for research scientists.

For at least the past decade, Meadows’ department, which consists of two other full-timers and four student workers, has completed an estimated 1,100 work orders a year for the 200-plus AAES research scientists. From solving minor PC problems to developing specialized contraptions needed for specific research projects, Research Instrumentation under Meadows’ expert management has had a definite hand in the success of the experiment station’s research program.

As for his life as a retiree, Meadows said he’ll mostly enjoy the seven-acre spread—complete with lake and garden plot—that he and his wife, Virginia, recently purchased; spend time with their three children and their families, including the seven grandkids; and, perhaps, do a bit of traveling.

“It’s been a nice trip,” he said of his years with AAES. “I have been blessed to work with and for so many good people through my years at Auburn University. I have truly enjoyed the journey.”

Meadows’ official last day on the job is Dec. 31.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

12/02/02

For immediate release