Pop was the first of his family to attend college.  He told me that he initially applied to UCLA, because the Beach Boys were making California surf life seem pretty appealing to a kid from Detroit.  Luckily for me, he stayed closer to home and headed to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan.  It was there, in the Stockwell dorm, that he met my Mom.  I can’t count the number of times he glowingly described seeing her walking down the dorm stairs.  They were inseparable for the next 56 years.  During his freshman year, his sister lost a long and painful battle with leukemia.  This was a trauma that he rarely spoke of, but followed him throughout his life.  As often happens, our worst moments can shift our perspective and allow us to follow paths that we were previously unable to see.  After his sister’s death, Pop abandoned his aerospace engineering major and instead followed his passions outside and into forestry.  He would go on to earn his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at U of M.  He spent summers in the Upper Peninsula as a Teaching Assistant at the University’s Forestry Camp.  His stories from this time in his life were utterly idyllic: a cabin in the woods shared with his new wife, fly fishing on the Paint River in soft evening light, pies made from gathered blueberries, teaching, chainsaw work, beers with friends at the local bar, and a “pet” raccoon affectionally named Coonie LaBelle.