ABOUT
I grew up on a small family farm near Clarkson, Nebraska, in the eastern part of the state. From an early age, I was intrigued by water. My great-grandparents, Vaclav & Katherine Cech (pronounced “check”), homesteaded a farm in 1879, and built a two-story frame house next to a dry creek bed.
The Cech farm relied on the Nebraska wind and a Chicago-made windmill for drinking water. The windmill pumped water through a system of buried pipe to a cement-lined vault buried underground. The water storage vault, called a cistern, was a marvel of engineering to a young Nebraska farm kid. The entire process fascinated me. How did my grandparents know to drill a well at that spot to find water? Who laid out the network of buried pipes on our farm? How did the groundwater get beneath our farm in the first place?
As an adult, I’ve worked in the field of water resources in Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. Many water issues in the American midwest are mirrored worldwide. Working in the field of water resources is fantastic. There is a great deal to learn – about water, about our world, and about ourselves.
BIO
Thomas V. Cech graduated from Kearney State College with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Math Education, and later received a Master’s Degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He was Executive Director of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District in Greeley, CO from 1982-2011. Tom was Co-Director of the One World One Water Center at Metropolitan State University in Denver, CO (2011-2022). He now works part-time for HDR Engineering in Fort Collins, CO, as a Senior Water Resources Consultant.
Through his career, Tom has been involved in water development and conservation, environmental issues, endangered species protection, groundwater management, lobbying at the state and federal level, and water education. Tom has developed water resources curriculum for preschool through high school students, and taught courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. Tom has written multiple textbooks used in courses around the world. Considered an expert in “water resources,” Tom has been been a guest lecturer for classes (on water, ecology, water law, and environmental studies), and at numerous professional conferences in the U.S. and abroad.
Tom and his wife, Grace (originally from St. Paul, Nebraska), live in Fort Collins, Colorado.