Donald C. Hennig, 65, of 585 County Road 612 Northeast, Kalkaska, a retired forest management specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, died Fri, Apr 18, 2008, at the home of his sister in Cranbury, NJ. He had been under treatment for lung cancer at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY, and Basking Ridge, NJ, for about 18 months and then in hospice care.
Mr. Hennig was born Aug 9, 1942 in Batavia, NY, and was raised in the rural area between Buffalo and Rochester, NY. He received a bachelor's degree from the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University in 1964 and a master's degree in forest management form MSU in Lansing in 1970. In the late 1960's he served four years in Washington, DC, and Seoul, Korea, as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force, attaining the rank of captain.
He was employed in forest management for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for about 30 years, retiring in 2003. While serving in field offices in Grayling, Cadillac, and Kalkaska, he supervised the planting of millions of trees in reforestation projects, monitored the health of tree populations and the condition of wildlife from white tailed deer to the Kirtland's warbler, and assessed ecological impacts of proposed uses of forest resources. He supervised tree cutting and logging, worked with geologists to determine which state land could be leased for oil wells, and helped manage camp grounds, ski and biking trails, and other recreational facilities on state lands.
Mr. Hennig was an active fisherman, hunter, target shooter, and sometime sailor on Grand Traverse Bay. He volunteered several times on teams fighting forest fires in Western States, and in 2003, he served on the Nasa shuttle recovery team that searched for human and mechanical remains after the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas; killing its crew. A man of wide intellectual interests, he was also an avid reader on subjects from European history to beekeeping, a lover of music from Wagner to the Carter Family singers, and a member of Mensa.
He is survived by his mother, Mae E Hennig of Indian Falls, NY; a brother, Martin Hennig (Joanne Weigel) of Scott's Valley, CA; a sister, Barbara Ireland (Patrick Wilson) of Cranbury, NJ; a nephew and two nieces.
