Promoting science literacy for children is “phase two” for a recently retired ASU faculty member, who’s making his transition out of the University as the research magazines he helped create transition online.

Conrad Storad, 52, former director of ASU Research Publications, and editor of the ASU Research Magazine, celebrated his retirement last week.

Storad worked in the positions for more than 24 years.

However, Storad said he’ll probably be busier than before and doesn’t consider himself as retired in the normal sense.

“I’ve been joking for years that my day job’s been getting in my way,” he said.

Writing children’s science books was never a goal of Storad’s, but he soon made it his passion.

“It turned out to be the hardest writing I’d ever done in my life,” he said.

Children are an “unforgiving” audience, and Storad said writing for children helped him be more clear and concise and improved his writing overall.

Storad has several plans for upcoming children’s books, like a series on physical fitness, though none are official yet.

In 1994, one of Storad’s first books was about scorpions, but because it’s now out of print, he plans to write a new tale about the critters.

“More and more people move to the Valley and to Arizona … and they don’t really know about the creatures that we have here in the desert,” he said. “It’s important to help educate them.”

A book on the ringtail cat, the official state mammal of Arizona, is also in his plans, as well a book on a “wiener dog,” in honor of his own pet, Sophie.

Though his focus is now on children’s books, Storad’s other life work includes time spent as an editor, reporter, science writer, director and general manager for an Ohio newspaper.

A self-declared “print man,” Storad helped create the ASU Research Magazine, which recently became Research Stories, and is now solely online.

He also created Chain Reaction, the first University-based science research magazine for children that he knows of.

“My talents and everything lie with print publications and writing,” he said, adding that he’s sad the printed version of the magazine is gone.

“It’s very important to be able to put something in somebody’s hand,” he said. “Not everybody has access to computers.”

Not only a trendsetter of research publications for universities, Storad was also one of the first three graduates with a master’s degree from ASU’s pre-Cronkite journalism school.

Sheilah Britton, spokeswoman for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs, said she first met Storad through a former ASU Research Review show she worked on.

Britton was asked to write a story and produce a video on a women’s conference, and Conrad became her editor on that story.

“I liked writing so much … that I just started pitching stories to him whenever I had an idea,” she said.

The future for the online magazine is bright, Britton said, and great stories can be presented in different forms, not just print.

“[Conrad] would tell you that he is a print guy and he was disappointed that the magazine was no longer going to be printed,” she said.

However, Storad helped launch the magazine’s Web site.

Jonathan Fink, director of the Center for Sustainability Science Applications, is the former vice provost for research and vice president for Research and Economic Affairs, and served as Storad’s boss for 10 years.

Fink first met Storad as a professor, he said.

“He wrote an article about some work that I had done on lava flows on the bottom of the ocean,” Fink said. “It was really helpful to have this beautiful article that he and his colleagues had put together.”

Storad was also beneficial to have around as an employee, Fink said.

“He kept winning awards all the time, and I could take credit for it,” he said, laughing.

The magazine going fully online is the “natural evolution” of publications now, Fink said.

“For a certain audience, like for older readers, it’s probably unfortunate,” Fink said. “There’s a whole group of supporters of the University who really like getting that paper copy in the mail.”

He said Storad was really dedicated to making science accessible to the public and children, as well as creating the best publications for University research.

“I think he accomplished a great many things, probably everything he set out to do,” Fink said.

Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu