And a district official said he plans to mount a new sign posthumously after hearing of Mr. Ibrahim's death Saturday. Mr. Ibrahim succumbed to injuries suffered in a July 1 vehicle accident in Edgewater.

During a visit at his farm in June, Mr. Ibrahim asked John Czajkowski, senior agricultural engineer for the soil conservation district, if he could get a new sign. Mr. Czajkowski told Mr. Ibrahim, "no problem" and within a few weeks, had a new shiny sign waiting for him.

But Mr. Czajkowski never could get in touch with Mr. Ibrahim. He didn't know he had been in the accident.

The 82-year-old man died Saturday from injuries he suffered in the head-on crash nearly two months earlier. Mr. Ibrahim, of 6175 Fishers Station Road, was driving his 2001 Toyota Avalon east on Mayo Road near Millhaven Drive at 11:30 a.m. when, for unknown reasons, he crossed the double yellow center line and struck a Mack trash truck, county police said. It took county firefighters about 30 minutes to free him from the wreckage, said Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, a county Fire Department spokesman.

Mr. Ibrahim was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with critical injuries.

Soil conservation district staff members had not heard about the crash yesterday. Mr. Czajkowski said he'd been trying to reach Mr. Ibrahim for about a month, but had no luck.

He said Mr. Ibrahim, a retired chemist for the federal Food and Drug Administration, was a polite man, who "always wanted things done the right way."

Mr. Ibrahim won a conservation award in 1997 for his innovative design of a stormwater-management pond and dam that reduces erosion from the fields at the 46-acre Waymore Farm along the Patuxent River, which he purchased in 1960, according to The Capital archives.

He then used sludge from the pond as an alternative fertilizer.

He'd become associated with the soil conservation district during his early attempts to make his property along the Patuxent River accessible. Mr. Czajkowski said Mr. Ibrahim has kept the farm "immaculate" through the years.

"He'd been keeping it up," he said. "He's made improvements to the pond. He still had crops growing out there. I just went out there not long ago. The farm looks just the same."

He said Mr. Ibrahim "never skimped" when it came to designing a pond or other structure.

"He always did it to a 'T' and followed the design to a 'T,' " he said.

Joseph Haamid, a resource conservationist for the soil conservation district, said Mr. Ibrahim always made it a point to stop by the office and say hello.

"He always came to our cooperators dinner, every year," he said.

He said Mr. Ibrahim was an independent man.

"He'd buy an old piece of equipment and completely remake it," Mr. Haamid said. "That'd be his little project down there."

Mr. Czajkowski said he didn't know Mr. Ibrahim's family, but said he would drop by the farm to try to find relatives and replace the old sign.

He said Mr. Ibrahim's wife died "some time ago." Other members of his family could not be contacted this morning.

Before he retired, he lived in Montgomery County and spent his weekends on Waymore Farm. He lived in the secluded timber house at the farm full-time since 1992.

"Conservation is easy to say, but you really have to spend a lot of time and money on it," he said after winning the conservation award in 1997.