William R. Burch

(1933 – 2024)

William R. Burch Jr., who taught at YSE for more than four decades and was renowned for his pioneering work in social and community forestry, died on July 16, 2024. He was 91.

Burch, the Frederick C. Hixon Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources Management, founded the Tropical Resources Institute (TRI) and the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) at YSE, where he brought innovative approaches in ecological enhancement and community development to both rural and urban settings.

Burch earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota, where he focused his research on recreation and people’s relationship to nature. During his career, he held positions in the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and USAID. He worked with many organizations, including the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund. He conducted some of the earliest research in community forestry systems and institute development in China, Bhutan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Nepal, where he served as a program director of the Institute of Forestry Projects at Tribhuvan University.

While participating in a panel discussion on U.S. national parks at which he discussed his work in Nepal, Burch struck up a friendship with Ralph Jones, then director of Baltimore Recreation and Parks, who was interested in his community-based approach. The encounter led to a partnership with the City of Baltimore and the creation of the Urban Resources Initiative, which afforded many YSE students the opportunity to work on green initiatives in Baltimore. Burch later brought the concept to New Haven, founding YSE’s URI.

He authored more than a dozen books and 100 peer-reviewed studies. His highly cited work on social and ecological research also includes the foundational texts “Social Behavior, Natural Resources, and the Environment,” “The Social Circles of Leisure: Competing Explanations,” and later, “The Baltimore School of Urban Ecology: Space, Scale and Time for the Study of Cities.” One of his seminal contributions to the field was the development of the Human Ecosystems Model (HEM), a framework for asking questions about the structure and process in human ecosystems that is aimed at connecting restoration work with community needs.

Students and colleagues have described Burch as someone with an “incandescent sense of justice” in his scholarship, teaching, and social action and recalled his down-to-earth approach, adventurous spirit, and colorful presence, including his eclectic reading lists that taught more than traditional textbooks.

Mark Ashton ’85 MF, ’90 PhD, senior associate dean of The Forest School and the Morris K. Jesup Professor of Silviculture, who was both a student and a colleague of Burch’s, remembered his beloved motorcycle, his “raucous” nature, and his penchant for getting students out of the classroom and into the field.

“He was an extraordinary person,” Ashton said. “It was unusual to have a professor who was a forester, who was sensitive to, and understanding of, the on-the-ground, day-to-day happenings and realities in forests. He had a sympathy for people who worked in the forest. That never left him. Bill’s students were about people because he was about people.”

Herster Barres Jr. ’56 BA, ’58 MF (1934–2024) passed away on March 7, 2024. He earned his PhD at the Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland, where he met his wife, Miranda Carlesso. The couple married in Martinique in 1961 and lived in Puerto Rico during his first assignment as a tropical forester before moving to Costa Rica, where he worked as an FAO forestry officer, founded the Latin American Tree Seed Bank, and developed and provided technical support for alternative crops for small farmers. In 1993, he launched Reforest The Tropics, where his body of research became the foundation for a mixed-species forestry model that maximizes profits for farmers as well as biomass accumulation that sponsors can use to offset greenhouse gas emissions. His carbon-offset approach was once radical but is now widely adopted and earned recognition in President Clinton’s Climate Action Plan.

Barres spoke five languages, was a pilot who restored World War II airplanes, and was a musician and a sportsman. Columnist Steven Slosberg once said “Herster was perhaps the most interesting, as well as confounding, tennis doubles partner. Well into his years, he would regale us on the court with tales of Costa Rican farmers and adventures with his cello and at the same time hit spinning drop shots from the baseline with abandon. He was delighted if those shots landed in and close to the net, which they did on occasion, and just as delighted if they didn’t. He was a man who took much obvious and audible joy in his pursuits.”

Whitney A. Beals ’70 MFS (1947–2023) passed away in Southborough, Massachusetts, on September 14, 2023. Whitney spent his youth roaming every corner of Chestnut Hill Farm and the Beals Preserve in Southborough. In addition to YSE, he attended Fay School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard University. He would attest that he was educated by and in the forest.

His long career included work with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, the Roaring Brook Nature Center, the Nature Conservancy in Maryland and Boston, the town of Wayland, Sudbury Valley Trustees, and the New England Forestry Foundation, from which he retired in 2019.

An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed hunting and fishing, but he also enthused over growth — flowers, vegetables, insects, livestock — all of them not so much under his care, but under his observation. And trees — especially trees — that gave him a longer view of life, a deeper understanding of the Earth, and the glow of history to warm him in the winter. He loved sharing his love for nature and his understanding of interdependency and connection.

Michael J. Beauregard ’60 MF (1937–2024) passed away on May 6, 2024. Born in Petoskey, Michigan, Michael was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting, fishing, bird watching, canoeing, and camping. His love for botany and his degree from YSE led him to open Whiffletree Plant Nursery, which he operated for 10 years after retirement.

Michael was a skilled woodworker who enjoyed carving wood and building furniture. He loved to help people, whether it be through prison ministry, missionary work, or helping someone work on their projects. He was very involved in the Catholic Church and was a father figure to many. Michael was a joy to know and will be deeply missed by his family and friends.

Thomas M. Blalock ’62 MF (1939–2024) passed away at home on April 2, 2024, at the age of 84. Born in Empress, Georgia, he was valedictorian of his high school class and earned his forestry degree from the University of Georgia before completing a master’s at Yale. His 35-year career with Union Camp Corporation reflected his deep commitment to sustainable forestry. He also served in Germany during the Cuban Missile Crisis, later immersing himself in the culture and traveling Europe by bicycle.

A dedicated forester and community leader, Tom dedicated himself to public service, holding leadership roles in the Martinez Rotary Club, the Columbia County Board of Elections, and the Harlem City Council. A passionate Georgia football fan and avid runner, he volunteered at the Peachtree Road Race and ran the Marine Corps Marathon. In retirement, he became the go-to expert for Harlem High School’s tree identification program, sharing his forestry knowledge with future generations.

Adriana Casas ’01 MEM (1971–2024) passed away at her home in New York on December 17, 2024, at the age of 53 surrounded by the love of her children, husband, parents, and sister, after a long battle with cancer. A dedicated advocate for biodiversity and environmental policy, she devoted her life to protecting nature and mentoring future conservationists. Born in Chicago and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Adriana studied law at Universidad de Los Andes before earning her degree from YSE. She began her career at Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment and wrote one of the first books on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing, a key objective of the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

During that time, she met Cristián Samper, whom she married in June 2002. The couple embarked on a lifelong journey devoted to studying and protecting nature that would take them to Panama, Washington, D.C., and New York. As a wedding gift to one another, Adriana and Cristián established the fondo de becas (scholarship fund) Colombia Biodiversa at the Fundación Alejandro Angel Escobar. To date, the fund has supported 175 university students completing dissertations on the biodiversity of Colombia.

Adriana later worked with Conservation International, focusing on illegal mining in the Amazon, and served on the board of Nature and Culture International. She is remembered as a woman of rare intelligence, quiet elegance, and conviction who seemed to illuminate the spaces she occupied.

Read Charlton ’57 BA, ’64 MF (1935–2024) passed away on April 29, 2024, in Farmville, Georgia, after a brief illness. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Read was a passionate steward of the Greenfield Plantation, now Greenfield Estate, which has been in his family since 1771, and worked to put it under a conservatorship to help ensure it would not be developed after his passing.

Read received his Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Yale College in addition to his degree from YSE. Read served in the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army. He worked for the United States government in Laos and in Paris during the Paris Peace Talks. He served as an analyst for the U.S. Army until his retirement.

An avid outdoorsman, Read loved fishing and duck hunting and particularly enjoyed trips to the Edisto River in South Carolina and Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. In Read’s latter years, he preferred to observe wildlife, of which there is no shortage at his home in Charlotte County. “To be sure, there was a time, right after Yale, when I crossed oceans and traveled in distant lands. But that time has passed, and, ultimately, I would rather be here [at Greenfield], walking the banks of Roanoke Creek,” he once said.

Charles H. “Chip” Collins ’92 MES (1954–2024) passed away on November 29, 2024, at the age of 70, after a long battle with dementia. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chip earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Colorado College in 1977.

Chip’s distinguished 40-year journey in conservation began at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and he went on to hold several influential roles, including Colorado state director for The Nature Conservancy, vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. After completing graduate school in his late thirties, he moved to Massachusetts, where he served as vice president of Winslow Management, an environmental investment firm. In 1995, Chip co-founded The Forestland Group, LLC, a timberland investment management organization, where he worked until his retirement in 2014.

Chip served on numerous boards, including the Land Trust Alliance, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the Institute for Ecosystem Studies, and the Student Conservation Association. He was deeply committed to protecting natural spaces and the species that inhabit them and enjoyed fishing, hunting, and spending time in nature, whether on waterfowl hunts with his family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland or exploring the mountains of Colorado and the woods of northwestern Connecticut.

Erik C. Esselstyn ’59 BA, ’65 MAT, ’93 MEM (1937–2023) passed away on December 23, 2023, at Central Vermont Medical Center with family by his side. He had been diagnosed with stage four metastatic prostate cancer less than three months before his death. Born in New York City, Erik spent most of his childhood on his family farm in Claverack, New York. He served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Yale as well as a Doctorate of Education from Harvard. After a career as an educator, Erik returned to Yale in his 50s to attend YSE.

Throughout his career he held positions such as therapist, writer, and leadership roles for organizations promoting renewable energy, green building, and land conservation. In retirement he was active in the community, serving on various boards and committees, assisting with the East Montpelier Volunteer Fire Department, writing frequent letters to the editor, volunteering on numerous political campaigns, and participating as a member of the Old Meeting House congregation.

His curiosity about the environment and about humanity led to research about newly emerging topics; his old friends remarked that they often heard about issues from him years before those issues appeared on the broader public radar.

Gerald D. “Jerry” Fitzgerald ’50 BS, ’51 MF (1929–2024) passed away peacefully on January 13, 2024, at age 94 while surrounded by his children. Gerald was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in New Haven. After earning his degree from YSE, he married his wife, Helen, and joined the Air Force as a flight mechanic. He then went on to work for the Oxford Paper Company while living on a farm in West Peru, Maine.

Gerald’s career in forestry included roles with the U.S. Forest Service in New Hampshire and with the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan. He enjoyed canoe trips with his children in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Waterway. In retirement he enjoyed time with his family as well as his many hobbies: gardening, hiking, birding, and letter writing. He excelled at photography and painting.

Donald S. “Don” Girton ’59 MF (1937–2023) passed away in Alexandria, Kentucky, on July 30, 2023. A dedicated conservationist and friend of the natural world, Don spent 27 years with the U.S. Forest Service and served two years in the U.S. Army’s Wildlife Management Section. Raised in Bellevue, he nurtured a lifelong passion for the outdoors through the Boy Scouts, amateur radio, and family trips across America’s Western landscapes.

During his Forest Service career, Don influenced national forest policies as part of the legislative affairs staff and as director of public affairs, playing a key role in managing 187 million acres of forests and rangelands. After retiring, he accepted a position at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon estate and later applied his expertise to operate his certified Tug Fork Tree Farm in Alexandria, Kentucky. In retirement, Don transformed his passion into community service, serving on the Campbell County Conservation District board and Campbell County Planning Commission and founding the Kentucky Woodland Owners Association.

Celebrated for his quiet wisdom and ability to unite diverse voices, Don was known for listening intently before offering clear, thoughtful guidance. His legacy of forest stewardship and community collaboration continues to inspire sustainable land management and conservation efforts across Northern Kentucky.

William T. Gladstone ’65 MF (1931–2020) passed away on October 13, 2020, in Cabot, Arkansas, at the age of 89. A forestry researcher specializing in loblolly pine and tropical silviculture, he contributed to both industry and academia. Originally from New York, Gladstone earned his degree from YSE in 1965 and completed a PhD in 1968 on pulping early and latewood in loblolly pine. He conducted extensive research on loblolly pine breeding, including topworking for precocious flowering. In 1978, he and Michael Greenwood demonstrated that both male and female strobili could be produced on scions from one-year-old trees, an advancement in seed production. In 1977, Weyerhaeuser appointed him manager of its Tropical Forestry Research Center in Indonesia, where he oversaw research on fast-growing tree species for industrial use. He later served as editor of the Southern Journal of Applied Forestry, helping shape forestry research and publication standards. Gladstone’s work influenced both research and practical forestry applications, and he was known for encouraging young foresters.

Richard F. “Dick” Henry ’56 MF (1932–2024) passed away on March 6, 2024, at the age of 92 in Meridian, Idaho. Born in Long Beach, California, Dick developed a lifelong passion for the outdoors, which led him to pursue studies in forestry. Dick served in the Army from 1956 to 1958, overseeing the tank division patrolling the DMZ in Korea. After his military service, he transitioned to a career as a general contractor and project manager, where he demonstrated exceptional leadership and organizational abilities. Although his career path did not directly follow his forestry background, his love for the outdoors remained central to his life. Dick enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities, including camping, boating, waterskiing, and snow skiing. He passed these passions on to his children and grandchildren, fostering a deep appreciation for nature within his family. Dick’s legacy of adventure, love for nature, and dedication to his family will continue to be cherished by all who knew him.

Earl R. Jette ’70 MF (1939–2024) passed away on December 17, 2024, in New Hampshire at the age of 85 after a courageous battle with dementia. A lifelong outdoorsman and advocate for wilderness exploration, Earl had a connection to the natural world that began at an early age, and he dedicated his career to forestry and outdoor education.

Born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Earl set a high school state record in the long jump that stood for decades before he went on to study forestry at the University of Maine.

From 1961 to 1967, he worked for Firestone on a rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia. He returned to the U.S. in 1968 to pursue graduate studies at YSE and went on to become executive director of the Dartmouth Outing Club. Over three decades, he fostered a love for the outdoors in countless students. His leadership blended wisdom, humor, and an adventurous spirit. One early morning, after discovering that students had released live chickens in his office, Earl left quietly before students arrived, returning later to repeatedly almost open his office door before feigning reasons not to, leaving his audience of pranksters in suspense. Ultimately, he gathered the chickens and took them home, where they thrived.

An avid adventurer, Earl hiked, fished, and traveled extensively, summiting Mount Kilimanjaro at 75. He was active in his community, serving on Lebanon’s Conservation Committee and at Sacred Heart Parish.

Robert F. “Bob” Kruckeberg ’64 MF (1932–2023) passed away on July 2, 2023. Born in Monte Vista, Colorado, and raised in Springfield, Illinois, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, an experience that helped shape his career and life. Bob attended Colorado State University, earning a degree in forest recreation while also excelling in hiking, climbing, and gymnastics. Upon graduation, he married Joyce Ferguson, and they spent their first summer together on fire watch in Rocky Mountain National Park. He served as a second lieutenant in the Air Force, training to become a helicopter pilot. Afterward, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service, helping design campgrounds and ski runs and performing avalanche control in various Western states. After earning his degree from YSE, Bob worked in national forests and at the fire research laboratory in Missoula, Montana, developing fire detection and mapping technologies.

Later in life, Bob and Joyce joined Wycliffe Bible Translators, where they served as missionaries in management positions. Bob’s deep faith, ignited during his time in Missoula, profoundly influenced his family and his community, where he served as a Bible study leader and deacon. He continued to help others by managing rental properties, building homes, and performing maintenance work. His great joy was serving others with a heart of kindness and hospitality.

Brian Roy Lockhart ’88 MFS (1964–2024) passed away in Springdale, Arkansas, on November 22, 2024. A dedicated forester and expert in hardwood silviculture, Brian devoted his career to the study and stewardship of Southern bottomland hardwoods.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brian developed a love of forestry that was evident early in his life. After graduating from Gentry High School in 1982 and earning a degree from YSE in 1988, he went on to complete a PhD in Forestry at Mississippi State University in 1992. He was the owner of Hardwood Silviculture LLC and an active leader in the field, serving as chair of the Society of American Foresters Silviculture Working Group and as a member of the Biennial Southern Silvicultural Conference steering committee.

Brian’s expertise, mentorship, and passion for forest ecosystems left an indelible mark on colleagues and students alike. His commitment extended beyond professional circles to the land itself — especially the family farm near Gentry, Arkansas, where he found joy in the trees he studied and cared for.

Jane Sokolow ’80 MFS (1950–2025), a ringing voice for the values of conservation and community, died earlier this year after a lifetime of service to natural resources. Quick to share opinions and relentless in support of her extended family and causes, Jane was an organizer of efforts to protect parks and wild places in every place she lived, from the Rockies to the Southwest to the Catskills to the Bronx. Raised in Wilton, CT, she was known as “Jesse” to her classmates in the Colorado College class of 1972, where Jane became a leader in her service on the school’s alumni association board. After graduating from YSE in 1980, Jane worked at the New York Botanical Garden. She also served on YSE’s Alumni Association Board from 2013 to 2019.

Jane sat on numerous neighborhood boards, including the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy, the Natural Areas Conservancy, and the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality. Described as a passionate and deeply engaged board member, Jane’s colleagues say her service brought together her training as a forester, her robust experience with nonprofits, and her deep love for New York City's forests and wetlands. Through her deep attachment to nature, she could often be found photographing flowers, birds, botany, and landscapes, especially in two of her favorite places on this globe; the Catskill Mountains region of New York state and the High Plains of northeast New Mexico. In recent years she created beautiful handmade books with original printed designs. Closer to home, Jane was a member of the Shakespeare Club and the Riverdale Yacht Club. And she could be found outdoors in any weather walking her dog for miles around Riverdale, where she was a central fixture of dog-walking groups in the area and seemed to add new friends to that circle weekly.