A career spanning 4 decades is but an historical speck. But the S.A. Wilde Lecture allows me to reflect on the progress of our discipline, as well as on my personal journey and the lessons I’ve learned. Fortunately--and purely by luck--my wanderings took form and direction shaped by mentors whose kindness and encouragement changed the course of my life. Accordingly, I’ve felt an obligation to justify their trust and inspiration by encouraging others to avoid the warm comfort of mediocrity and to strive for work that is relevant to society today and beyond. Science is based on curiosity, and I was curious about the “whys” of soil components of site productivity. Thus, I was drawn to findings from the CRIFF and RFNRP efforts and was treated as a colleague by my heroes in these fields. Both CRIFF and RFNRP showed that fundamental and applied science were not mutually exclusive. Rather, they could be melded through cooperation for the betterment of forest science and forest management. But from that less sophisticated time science momentums have emerged and swung like pendulums, made “politically critical” in some cases by our own hype. Such swings, like the tides, rush us in one direction and then another. Yet, we have made progress and the thread common to this has been our ability to demonstrate the relevance of our work to social needs. Today we face a challenge unlike any in our past. I am concerned about our professional future, including that of my own agency. “Doing good work” no longer ensures success. Assuming that the worth of what we do is self-evident is myopic. The need for a collective vision is at hand. Such vision will require objectivity, perseverance, and an unprecedented capacity to communicate the social significance of our collective work