I recently read (for the umpteenth time) Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology. I thought I would share this chapter with the membership, as I find it is as relevant today as it was over a century ago (if not more so).
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LONG-TIME NOWA MEMBER PASSES
I am very sorry to share the news that G.I. Wilson, a long-time NOWA member and conference attendee, has passed away. According to his wife, Jo, G.I. had fallen a couple of times in January. He was placed in a rehab center with the hope that he would regain his strength so he could return home but instead, passed away on February 16th.
G.I. was a talented outdoors columnist and writer whose work appeared in magazines like Sports Afield, Salmon-Trout-Steelheader, the Pointing Dog Journal, Pheasants Forever magazine and many more publications. G.I. and his wife Jo were always a pleasure to spend time with at NOWA Conferences over the years and to say he will be missed is an understatement. Here is the obituary I received from Jo Wilson. You can reply to her from this email if you choose to do so and hopefully some of you can attend his memorial service in Salem on March 15th.
Obituary for G.I. Wilson
G.I. Wilson passed away February 16, 2025 in Keizer, Oregon. He was born on a farm in the Texas Panhandle, April 25, 1932. It was during the Dust Bowl. At age six, the family moved to Glover, Oklahoma, in McCurtain County.
He graduated from the 8th grade in a three-room schoolhouse. He graduated from Broken Bow High School. He was the second student from Glover Elementary to graduate from high school. He attended Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) until drafted for the Korean War effort. After two years in the Army spent in Germany, he joined his parents in Sweet Home, Oregon.
He received a B.A. degree in Education from Oregon College of Education (now WOU). He earned a M.A., specializing in teaching the deaf, a career he pursued for the next 30 years. He taught at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. He received a fellowship at the University of California earning a graduate degree. He returned to the Oregon School for the Deaf. Over the next 25 years he served as supervising teacher, assistant director, and his last five years as director.
After early retirement, he followed a long-time dream, graduating from The North American School for Outdoor Writing and became a freelance outdoor writer to write about his passion for the outdoors. He spent the next 25 years writing for national, regional and state magazines and websites. He was a member of the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association. He won numerous awards in their Excellence In Craft competition. He self-published a collection of his humorous experiences in Bear Crushes Dad.
An avid angler, he fished from Mexico to Alaska, Canada and Hawaii. He wrote many articles based on fishing, hunting deer, elk and birds.
He was preceded in death by his son, Gary Wilson; parents, Pearl and Irving Wilson; sister, Georgeanna Denver; and granddaughter, Samantha Zook. He is survived by wife Jo Wilson, Keizer; daughters Susan Zook (Mike), Boardman, Oregon and Sandra White, Salem, Oregon; three grandsons, and six great grand children.
A Memorial Service will be held March 15, 2025, 1:00 p.m. at Center 50+, 2615 Portland Road NE, Salem, Oregon. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Tunnel to Towers Foundation or your favorite charity.