Professor Jill Bracy from the University of Missouri-St. Louis knew Don Sweeney as a student, then as a mentor, then as a co-worker. She spoke about his excellence in teaching.
by Don Corrigan
Among the many accomplishments cited for the late Don Sweeney at his St. Louis tribute in January was his work with the Army Corps of Engineers. Sweeney became a whistleblower at the Corps over a proposed billion-dollar Mississippi River project.
Included in relics from that 2000 controversy, available at the Sweeney tribute, was a Time magazine cover story on the Corps’ Mississippi River project, which Sweeney opposed over the objections of his supervisors.
Stories inside the July 10, 2000 edition of Time magazine were packed with headlines, subheads, captions, and accounts of Sweeney’s opposition. Similar news accounts appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Washington Post.
One caption read: “Don Sweeney blew the whistle on wasted dollars and a ruined river.” A headline warned: “Mississippi Mud: The Army Corps of Engineers wants to build and dredge, no matter what.”
An excerpt from the story stated: “Don Sweeney, a highly respected career economist … determined that the Corps project on the Mississippi would be economically unsound, stressing that the agency’s analysis failed to include hefty environmental costs.”
Environmentalists noted that increased locks and dams, enlarged barge tows, and constant dredging would reduce the river to a superhighway for tows and barges – safety, wildlife, flood protections and wetlands by damned.
A Washington Post reporter told Don Sweeney’s wife, Jill, that her husband may not have reformed the Army Corps, but he stood up at great personal cost to fight both for taxpayers and for the environment.
Sweeney’s analysis was vindicated. He left the Corps to become a professor and administrator at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL), where he excelled in both teaching and scholarship.
Parade of Testimonials
The tribute to Sweeney’s life included kind words from his friends, family and relatives, his Knox College TKE fraternity brothers, his former students and associates at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and more.
Professor Jill Bracy spoke as an UMSL representative. She knew Sweeney as a student, then as a mentor, then as a co-worker, then as a friend. She spoke about his excellence in teaching.
Jeff Marmorstein knew him from his Corps days and beyond. He and his family live two blocks from the Sweeney home, and they had worked together, helped each other with home projects, took walks together, talked on the phone all of the time.
Two Knox TKE fraternity brothers talked about Sweeney’s college days. Kyle Vantrease noted that Sweeny could solve class math problems and formulas that no one else in his classes could touch.
Fraternity brother Robert Bolier remembers Don Sweeney’s ability on the Knox College football team.
Fraternity brother Robert Bolier remembered Sweeney’s ability on the college football team. He also told enjoyable stories about dormitory and fraternity life.
Many awards were noted on a tribute table. They included recognition by the Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the National Wildlife Federation, and the Natural Resources Council of America.
Sweeney was born on May 28, 1951 and died on November 18, 2023 of pancreatic cancer and cardio-vascular complications. He was incapacitated at the time of his 1973 Knox Class Re-union and fielded phone calls from classmates during the October 2023 celebration.
Sweeney graduated from Knox College with degrees in Math and Economics and from Washington University with a Ph.D in Economics. He worked 28 years at the Corps of Engineers and 12 years as a professor and at University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Environmental Echo 