OBITUARY LESLIE VIERECK

 

     Leslie Viereck was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts and was graduated from Dartmouth High School in South Dartmouth, MA.  He majored in botany at Dartmouth and went into the Army after graduation. He was drawn to Alaska during his Dartmouth years when he and two friends drove a Model A Ford up the Alaska Highway.  During the next few years he returned to Alaska several times as he worked to finish his doctorate degree in plant ecology as the University of Colorado.

    In 1954 while serving in the Army at Fort Richardson in Anchorage he made a first ascent of the south buttress of Mount McKinley, a feat no one has been able to duplicate.  Shortly thereafter he met his future wife, Eleanor 'Teri' Norton. In 1959 he got a job teaching and doing research at the University of Alaska.  One of his first projects was to do an environmental impact study of the potential use of nuclear weapons to build a harbor on Cape Thompson on the northwest coast of Alaska.  He and two other scientists identified the potential disastrous consequences of this proposal by the Atomic Energy Ciommission.  As a result of their efforts the project was cancelled but it cost all three men their jobs.

     In 1963 Les accepted a job with the U. S. Forest Service at the Institute of Northern Forestry.  During his tenure there he wrote a definitive book on the classification of the trees and shrubs of Alaska.  His research focused  on the permafrost and the succession of the forests of the interior.

At that time Les and Teri and their two young sons forged a driveway into the forest north of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and built a house where they lived for the next 45 years.  Several years later their daughter was born.

    In 1993, Les received an honorary degree and emeritus status from the University.  He retired from the Forest Service in 1999 and continued to work with the scientists at the University of Alaska on the Long Term Ecological Research project, also mentoring young scientists who would carry on this research effort.  

Les's family said: "...his love of his garden and all growing plants, as well as his amazing memory for the lyrics of hundreds of folk songs, were two of his most recognized characteristics.  Another trait of Les was his attention to phenology, the study of times of naturally occurring events.  His personal journal has the dates of the yearly migration of birds, the greening of trees, days of flowering and the high and low temperatures of the day. This curiosity led to the establishment of a personal study of the permafrost below his house.  His record of the depth of the permafrost is a unique climatic record that has gained new attention with the advent of global warming."

    Les is survived by Teri, his wife of 53 years; daughter Sharon Tobias, sons Rodney and Walter Viereck and six grandchildren--Karly, Lauren, Kristy, Sophie, River and Tully. Les died on August 31, 2008 at home after struggling with numerous health issues.  His family decided to scatter his ashes on the Tanana River where Les spent three or four days a week during the summer.