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The first three, successive Editors-in-Chief of Agricultural Water Management, Jans Wesseling, Jan van Schilfgaarde, and Herman Bouwer, were of Dutch origin, received their early training immediately after World War II, and started their careers in the early 1950s: Jans in The Netherlands and Jan and Herman in the USA. In this paper we review the circumstances and the highlights of their contributions to responsible management of water in agriculture. Following a sketch of the state of agricultural water management research around 1950, both in The Netherlands and in the USA, we describe their training, document their early scientific contributions, especially in the realm of agricultural drainage, and highlight their later service as research managers. The three careers reflect the great progress in the second half of the 20th century: the scope of water management research widened, computational capabilities became more powerful, experimental methods became more sophisticated. With increasing attention for environmental implications of water management, the focus of research changed from mainly water quantity to both water quantity and quality. The review of the careers of the first three Editors-in-Chief shows that the journal Agricultural Water Management from its inception and throughout its first quarter century was in very good hands.
