Lee Tate may have retired from his job as an environmental engineer for the state of Georgia, but he’s not relaxing in a rocking chair or hitting the golf course just yet. He’s busy helping establish the nation’s first national pool standards, serving as program coordinator for the Model Aquatic Health Code.

A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Tate is a professional engineer who spent 30 years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service working on numerous environmental engineering assignments dealing with everything from youth camp safety to toxic waste exposure.

As program coordinator, Tate provides support for the Steering Committee and technical committees.

“My role is to expedite the project,” he says. “I serve as a resource to the committees, and my job is to equip them to have the training, guidance and tools to do the real work that needs to get done.”

Tate holds one of three paid positions involved with the MAHC (the rest are volunteers), and in working with the group, he says he’s impressed at how competent and dedicated everyone is.

“Hopefully as a group we’ve pulled together information that will be a data-driven, knowledge-based, risk reduction effort,” Tate says.

You can expect that until that is a reality, Tate is eager to continue as a part of the MAHC team.

“I hope that I’m never really retired,” he says. “I think it’s important to stay active.”