Alumni Updates – Summer 2024
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EmailHere is what our forestry alums have been up to.
Jerome (Jerry) Gelock | BS ‘62
My wife LouAn and I continue to live in our home in Bakersfield. Meanwhile, our family continues to grow. We’ll be adding to number of great grandkids - in November # 10 will arrive.
The years are going by much faster than they used to. Continue with hobbies around the house and remain active in our church. Life has been good to us both. Reminisce our 4 years at MSU – the best university one could ever attend. A Spartan forever.
Wade Nutter | PhD ‘68
I retired from University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources as Professor Emeritus of Hydrology in 1997. I am currently partially retired as chairman of an environmental consulting company, Nutter & Associates, Inc. I co-founded in 1984. Nutter & Associates has 28 employees.
Ken Freye | MS ‘76
After 43 years in Maine, Cheryl and I moved to Emmaus, PA in 2022 to be close to family. It is great living two miles from our granddaughter, but we do miss Maine. Love the huge tulip trees here and the availability of cherry lumber. I am fully retired having spent most of my career doing real estate transactions for electric utilities. My forestry degree and background was excellent for this line of work in a rural state like Maine.
John Robinson | MS ‘89
After a 25 years with Plum Creek Timber and Weyerhaeuser as a GIS and data analyst, my wife and I split our time between Hollywood, FL and Las Matas de Farfán, Dominican Republic.
Molly Rooney | BS ‘11
I work as the Living Collections Acquisitions Manager in the horticulture department of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri.
I plan and execute fieldwork collecting and conserving the world’s flora in Missouri and across the globe. My forestry education and my time at MSU provided a basis for my interest in global plant communities and I will always cherish my time wandering Baker Woodlot with my fellow students and friends.
I have an awesome young toddler and it’s been incredible to share an interest in the natural world with him.
Jungho Baek | PhD ‘04
I earned my Ph.D. in Forest Economics in 2004 under the supervision of Dr. Runsheng Yin. Following my graduation, I worked as a research assistant professor at North Dakota State University from 2004 to 2009. In 2009, I began my career as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where I currently hold the position of Harold T. Caven Professor of Economics.
My Ph.D. dissertation focused on international trade, and I have continued to research this area while also exploring new topics in energy economics and applied econometrics. I am deeply grateful for the knowledge and experiences I gained at MSU and hope to visit in the near future.
Christian Gabler | BS ‘23
After MSU, I began my career with the Michigan DNR as a forester and moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Currently I live and work out of Sault Ste. Marie MI, managing state forests within the Sault Ste. Marie Management Unit and managing USFS land via the Good Neighbor Authority on the East Zone of the Hiawatha NF.
My typical day is a balance of office work and field work. Field work is mostly setting up timber for sale and administering timber sale contracts and office work is the computer side of timber sale prep and contract write up.
The coolest thing I’ve seen on the job so far was a fisher that ran in front of me while I was cruising in a mixed conifer stand near Trout Lake, MI.
