Our colleague and friend Dick Powell passed away July 30, 2025. We remember the many decades of his life that he devoted to managing the forests at Starker Forests and educating youth and the public about forests and the practice of sustainable forestry.
Dick is survived by his wife, Rachel, his daughter Candi (Jesse), his son Jason (Cassie) and grandson Henry.
In the 1960s, Dick started working for Starker Forests as a tree planter and general forest maintenance employee while studying forest management at Oregon State University (B.S. Forest Management 1967). He was always dependable and carried out his duties with the utmost competence. Following his military service in the USAF (1967-1971,) during the Vietnam war, he returned to Corvallis and was employed by Starker Forests as a full-time forester in 1972. Dick was a pleasure to work with. He held a variety of positions during his time with Starker Forests. He supervised the Starker reforestation program, designed and supervised timber harvests and road construction, coordinated silvicultural burning, and represented the company in a variety of community endeavors. His patience and love of children and young adults eventually led to him becoming Starker’s first Public Outreach Forester. He was the primary developer of the curriculum we still use when taking students “to the Woods” at the Starker Forestry Trail near Blodgett.
He took the name Treeman on his Outdoor School wood cookie necklace and was known as Treeman to thousands of Oregon students. Dick had a great sense of humor, and with a serious expression, he told every field trip class to the Starker Forestry Trail that the 1-mile hike was 12 miles and asked if they brought their sleeping bags. Dick was a lead organizer in the Benton County youth natural resource event Forest Expo. While teaching at Outdoor School, Dick led the overnight wilderness survival course for many years. The morning following the overnight course, Dick presented each student with a certificate of “positive mental attitude.”
Dick joined the Society of American Foresters in 1972 and remained active in the professional society for foresters for the rest of his life. He held many leadership positions at both the local and state level in SAF, culminating in being elected to the position of Oregon State Chair in 2014. He was voted by his peers to be the Oregon Forester of the Year in 1993 and was honored as being a Fellow in 2014.
His patience and analytical abilities not only helped him in his work at Starker Forests, but as he became a master wood working craftsman. He built beautiful furniture and turned many superb items on his wood lathe. He also volunteered as a mentor and wood turning teacher to the students enrolled in the Philomath Middle School wood shop program. He would eagerly explain how he incorporated math into the middle-schoolers wood turning projects. He often used western Oregon native wood species. We all treasure the items he left for us to enjoy.
Though Dick retired from his full-time profession and avocation in 2015, he never really retired. He remained involved in teaching forestry field trips at Starker Forests, setting up the kitchen with Scout Troop 2 for the annual Starker Tree Planting Day, attending Society of American Foresters meetings and tours, maintaining a desk at the Starker office, attending and teaching outdoor school at Camp Tadmor and Forest Camp and serving on several committees that kept him involved in forests and forestry. Dick was a great communicator. He often wrote thoughtful letters to the editor of the newspaper explaining the facts of forestry that someone had misrepresented in the paper or at a meeting. Dick never backed down when controversial or misunderstood forestry issues were being discussed.
In describing his work as a Forest Educator, Dick commonly said that it wasn’t his job to tell people what to think about forests but to teach them how to think about the complexities of forests and forest management. It was important to him to communicate that our forest management choices include trade-offs. The bumper sticker on his truck said “Wood is Good.”
As Dick’s daughter Candi wrote, “His love of trees encompassed so many parts of his life.”
We remember his friendship, his commitment to forestry and forestry education, his enthusiasm and willingness to share with others his vast knowledge of forests, forest operations, and his skill and personal passion for wood turning.