Gordon C. Heebner

1929 - 2025

IN LOVING MEMORY

GORDON C. HEEBNER

4/27/1929 5/22/2025

I was born in a small, isolated farming community in southwestern Nebraska to Clarence R. Heebner and Norma Lindskog Heebner. My birth coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression. Although there was no money, no jobs, no rain and massive dirt storms, I had parents that loved me and a happy

childhood with many friends.

As a teenager, I worked at many different jobs and became competent at several of them. I realized

that hard work and education were key to my goal of not becoming a farmer.

World War II and the movies expanded my imagination to see another way of life. My first real

exposure to the outside world came in 1947, when I enrolled at the University of Nebraska. I intended

to become a research chemist and then marry my high school sweetheart. However, what I learned was that I would never make it as a chemist and my girl married someone else.

I was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1951 and promptly sent to Korea. Upon my return home in 1953, I had

no idea as to what to do next. So, I completed my last semester at the University of Nebraska and got a Bachelor of Science Degree.

The GI Bill provided the financial means and Mark Twain provided the inspiration to continue my quest to explore other possibilities. A friend and I mapped out a road trip from Lincoln, Nebraska to Lake Baikal in eastern Russia. The destination was not critical. It was the journey that intrigued me.

However, the road trip did not go as planned. it started in a massive snowstorm and ended 7 days later in Moscow, Idaho. I enrolled at the University of Idaho in 1954 and graduated with a Masters Degree in Forestry two years later. While in Idaho, I also met my future wife, Antonia, on a blind date and married her in 1956. On our honeymoon, we moved to Norfolk, Nebraska. This is where I got my first real job as a District Wildlife Biologist and became a father. Barbara was born in 1957.

In 1958 the U.S. Forest Service was hiring 5 new wildlife biologists in California. On a whim, I applied and got myself a new job. The Heebner family once again loaded everything we owned into a small trailer and headed west. We were living in Modoc County, California in the fall of 1958. Thats when I discovered that the Sierra Nevada mountains were the place I wanted to work and raise a family.

Meanwhile, the family increased; Christine was born in 1960 and Mark followed her in 1961. During my career, our family moved several times between the Oregon border and the Kern River in Central California. We met a lot of great people. Work was diverse and never boring. Life was idyllic for 25 years.

To my mind, this idyll collapsed in the early 1980s when the politicians decided that every American citizen should have a voice in how the National Forests were managed. The loudest voices in the debate

wanted to restore forest conditions to what they were 300 years ago, as if only a few Americans still

lived in and used the forest. Forest Management was abandoned, and Preservation became the order of the day.

This new strategy was in direct conflict with my 37 years of experience in maintaining a healthy forest and balancing the interests of all parties that use the forest for their livelihood and recreation. I devoted the next 10 years of my career to protesting the new strategy. I finally realized these efforts were not contributing to my belief that life should be an adventure. I retired in 1994.

Retirement lasted a lot longer than I had anticipated. Sadly, I never got around to sailing up the Amur River or finding out what I'd do after arriving in Lake Baikal. Perhaps my guardian angel will arrange this trip in my next life.

I could have done without some of the aches and pains of old age, but otherwise its been a good life.

Lots of blue sky, few fences and not many regrets.

A private service will be held by the family.