College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Why I came to Tech: John DePuydt – 1971

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During spring break of my senior year (1967) of high school, my Dad, my cousin Chuck (his company sold hockey equipment to John MacInnes and Michigan Tech hockey), and I drove up to Tech from the Detroit area for a visit. I had been accepted at Tech already and I wanted to see what I was getting into.  I chose Tech because I wanted to play hockey (I played on the Freshmen team) and to go into Forestry, and to get into some of the great hunting that was talked about up here.

While we were visiting, we got a chance to go to the Forestry building (Hubbell School) and meet Dr. Hesterberg.  Upon meeting Dr. Hesterberg (he insisted we call him Gene) and seeing a mounted Ruffed Grouse on his desk I knew I was in the correct place!  My classmates and I were the first freshman class in the new building. We were also the first class to have Summer Camp on campus.

After I graduated I never left the area and have been here for 44 years!  Incidentally, my parents moved the entire family up here just before I graduated.  My brother, Drew, was at Tech with me and he graduated in 1973, and the DePuydt name has been a stable name in the Copper Country for many years and many more years to come!

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Why I came to Tech: Tom Cieslinski – 1963

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I had never heard of the Michigan College of Mining and Technology until receiving the offer of a $100 scholarship in the spring of 1959 to attend the Soo Branch. That was a good sum of money at the time. Three of my classmates had received the same offer and accepted so I decided to join them, and quickly picked Forestry as my major.

Coming from a poor family with little money, I hoarded the few dollars earned from paper route and grocery store jobs and headed north with my father and a promise from a very benevolent aunt to pay for tuition and other expenses. My first quarter was extremely difficult with 5 Cs and a D. A very understanding and compassionate Algebra professor straighted me out in the second quarter (stop playing card games!). From then on my grades improved every year culminating with graduation with honors in 1963.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the Soo and Houghton campuses, summer camp at the Ford Forestry Center, the campus food (generally better than what I got at home), and finally the 9 hole golf course the last quarter of my senior year (hitch-hiked as I had no car). I participated in seven intramural sports as well as winter statue construction.

The course work was very hard for me, not being the brightest bulb, but I made it. I am extremely grateful to the college, to the Forestry staff at both campuses, and especially to my aunt who came through on her promise. My aunt was a hoarder and saved all the letters I mailed her from both campuses, the summer camp, and my Forest Service internship in the Rio Grande National Forest the summer of 1962.

Again, thank you everyone.

—Tom Cieslinski

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Alberta: A Great Community

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Alberta – a great community of faculty, staff and students.

It was my home and office for 26 years. I remember a few students rebelled against the Athletic Deprtment requiring summer camp to have physcial exercise for PE credit.  An unnamed students whose initials were Bill Botti led a short series of trumpet “charges” at 7:00 a.m. for a few days wherein the students sang “Mickey Mouse” as they raised the Mickey Mouse flag up the flag pole. The “requirement” was soon dropped and the students maintained their PE credit.

Another fun incident was when a student, rumored to be Mike Henricksen, allegedly broke into the dining hall and decided to ride the dumbwaiter down to the kitchen cooler to feed his crew, after getting in late for dinner one night. They even cleaned up after themselves!

We all have many fond memories of the good times at Alberta.

Roger Rogge – former faculty member

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Funding for Undergraduate Research Announced

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This summer, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) will support 23 students from across the University with funds from the Vice President for Research, the Honors Institute and the Biotechnology Research Center (BRC). The total funding for the program this year is $74,300.

The recipients, their major, membership in the Honors Institute (HI) and advisors  from the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science are:

Alex Mehne (Forestry), Associate Professor Andrew Burton, Performance of Non-local Tree Species Planted in Baraga County, Michigan.

Auriel Van Der Laar (Wildlife Ecology and Management, HI), Assistant Professor Joseph Bump, Developing Morphometrics Models to Predict the Sex of King and Virginia Rails.

Katherine Waring (Civil and Environmental Engineering, HI), Assistant Professor Rodney Chimner , Sleeper Lake Fen Restoration: Modeling Water Flow Patterns and Water Chemistry.

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Kate Lenz and Missy Taylor – 1997

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“Old Pals,” Kate Lenz and Missy Taylor took a Copper Country Road Trip to Houghton last fall (2010) to see the colors and visit the area. It was Kate’s first visit to the “new” building since graduation. She said, “It’s nice to see that students hopefully never have to endure classes in the trailers again!”  Kate works for the Wisconsin DNR and lives in Peshtigo. Missy lives in Marquette and is employed by Peninsula Land Surveying.

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Paul Gaberdiel – 1980

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Paul Gaberdiel stopped by the School while his son was attending orientation at Michigan Tech last August (2010). Paul graduated with a BS in Forest Management. He works for the Michigan DNR in Newberry where he is the Forest Fire Supervios for the MDNR Newberry management unit. He is also the incident commander for the eastern Upper Penninsula incident management team.

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