Members' 25-Year Reminiscences

Ernest E. Melvin, AICP

Santa Fe, New Mexico

A planning student conducted and wrote this account of an interview with Ernest E. Melvin in March 2002:

The first thing I notice about Ernie Melvin is his friendly, cheerful smile and positive, supportive attitude. Dr. Melvin is a 78-year-old resident of Immanuel Lakeside Village, who had a career as a city planner and professor. Ernie became my friend while I worked in the dining room at Immanuel Lakeside Village. He worked as a city planner for Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, and later as a private planning consultant.

Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Melvin in his comfortable apartment at Lakeside. Many works of art from Japan decorate his apartment, including beautiful vases, statues, and paintings. During our visit, Ernie was very polite and spent considerable time answering my numerous questions.

"A lot of patience!" Ernie answered without hesitation, when asked what it takes to be a successful city planner. He also emphasized the need for good communication skills, common sense, and knowledge of land development principles and law. Dr. Melvin is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and sat on the Institute's National Examining Board. Even though Ernie is retired from work, he continues to have an interest in planning and a desire to keep informed on developments in the field. During the interview, he showed and gave me an AICP newspaper that he recently received and read. The newsletter discussed planning examinations in China.

City planners work with a wide variety of people, including industry development groups, city councils, attorneys, large community groups, and small neighborhood groups. Most of these people are not trained planners. When conversing with these people, it is important to be respectful, and talk in plain, clear, understandable, non-technical language. A diplomatic and persuasive personality is useful because the meetings were often political with a potential for conflict. Dr. Melvin thought that the best way to deal with these settings and people was to take an educational approach. Selling people on an idea and plan was effective when the city planner educated them about planning principles, such as population density and compatible land uses.

Dr. Melvin stressed that a good city planner needs to have common sense and creativity to solve planning problems. A good city planner also needs broad knowledge in planning and other related fields. He gave me a pamphlet that discussed the AICP's exam. This exam tests knowledge of planning principles and law, and includes an essay on a planning situation. Also, the exam tests what a planner needs to know in other fields, such as architecture, road engineering, infrastructure, urban economics, sociology, and ecology.

A city planner also needs to often deal with frustration. Dr. Melvin pointed out the numerous frustrating situations, such as meeting with people holding strong points of view, attending evening meetings, and taking forever before solutions are found and issues are resolved. Ernie's patient, sociable, and respectful personality helped him successfully deal with frustrating situations.

The profile of successful city planners shows people with patience, good communications skills, common sense, creativity, and respect. They also need broad knowledge of planning and other related fields, diplomatic and persuasive personalities, and high tolerance for frustration. Planners also need to be educators and have the ability to work with a wide variety of people. It's clear that Dr. Melvin possesses these traits.