~ Fr. Bert Otten, SJ Receives U. of Missouri Recognition

Folks at Seattle U. know all about Fr. Bert’s engineering expertise (he taught in their College of Science & Engineering for years). Academic colleagues used to follow his enthusiasm from one project to the next but in 2005 he was missioned to Zambia – which , you should know, is very far away. He’s kept in touch with a lot of folks but it’s hard to keep up with him from a distance.

Bert has spent the 4 years becoming something of a celebrity and recently he was honored by his Missouri alma mater.

Here’s an excerpt from a Columbia Daily Tribune article. Take a few minutes and read it in its entirety.

“He practices, basically, what you might call MacGyver engineering,” said James Devaney, an MU law student in his final semester, who helped coordinate Engineers’ Week on campus.

In the village where Otten works, many simple materials are difficult to get, so he uses what he has on hand to achieve his goals of improving water, electricity and transportation for the local people. One LED light he built, for example, used a cardboard toilet paper roll cut in half, covered by an inside-out potato chip bag for a reflector.

He set up a water distiller with two old barrels, half of a conduit pipe and an old plastic water bottle.

Sunflower seeds, which are a plentiful crop in the area, he cleaned, filtered and heated to convert, without chemical modification, into biofuel, which Otten says smells like restaurant chips when he drives down the dusty road.

Batteries, which are easily purchased and disposed of in the United States, are too expensive and inconvenient to get. Therefore everything he does is focused on long-term viability, and he crafts solar panels to power vegetable and fruit dryers, water pumps and more.

Last night the College of Engineering gave Otten a Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering, a designation only a few receive each year.

We’re proud of Bert and look forward with hope to meeting the young Jesuits who will follow in his footsteps of providing his ingenuity and dedication to the people of God.