With sadness, the Arizona Hydrological Society (AHS) learned that long-time member, Gary Burchard, passed away at the age of 63 on June 11, 2025, while in home hospice. Gary received his B.S. in Geology (1985) from Florida State University and a M.S. in Hydrology (1989) from the University of Arizona. He worked as an Arizona professional for 40 years and was just hitting his best years when cancer ended his career.
He began as a hydrology intern with Pima Associations of Governments in Tucson (1985). He then worked at the Pima County Wastewater Management Department, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (Phoenix), Brown and Caldwell (Phoenix), Gila River Indian Community, Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District (Tucson), and LRE Water (Tucson).
Gary was always the consummate professional in his work and when interacting with the public, clients, regulators, and contractors. He was the model “public servant” and was always striving to improve the water industry. He especially enjoyed mentoring hydrology interns at Metro Water & LRE Water. In his later professional years, Gary’s career expanded beyond Arizona: he was a significant contributor on developing new drinking water supplies in Texas, and he was working on California’s largest injection well-field program.
Mr. Burchard contributed to the advancement of water-well technology by serving on the American Water Works Association Well Standards Committee on Well Design: in particular, gaining approval to utilize glass beads as a filter pack media, and updating the plumbness and alignment specifications for wells. Additionally, Gary helped the National Ground Water Association by developing standards for operational maintenance for recharge basins. Throughout his career, Gary was instrumental in being an early adopter/innovator in down-hole geophysics techniques like Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and created an innovative tool on how to properly size glass beads gradations to unconsolidated sediment aquifers.
His contributions to AHS included serving as the 2001 Annual Symposium Chair and 2007 Annual Symposium Co-Chair. Additionally, Gary co-presented with Marvin Glotfelty on Well Video Logging Workshops for NGWA (2006), the Tri-State Conference (2007) and the AHS Annual Symposium (2018). In 2023, he served as the AHS Tucson Chapter’s President.
He is survived by his sister Rebecca (husband Mark), spouse Judith and two children, Joshua and Stephanie.
Memorial gifts can be made to the American Red Cross which helped provide Gary with needed blood products the last two years.