Introducing Your Board of Directors

Bob and Vonnie Olson, son and daughter-in-law of Sig and Elizabeth, Foundation President and Secretary respectively. After a career in the Foreign Service with postings from the Far East to the Near East, Europe, North Africa, Canada, and Washington, DC, they retired to the family homestead in Wisconsin, now a certified tree farm and demonstration forest, serve on the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute Advisory Board, are active in the Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association, and enjoy the matchless pleasures of country life.

Chuck Wick and wife Marty, a home health nurse, have been close friends of Sig and Elizabeth, cared for them in their declining years, and bought and live in the Olson house, which includes the writing shack. Chuck is a Professor at Vermilion College, both are active in church and community affairs, and look after and conduct visits to Listening Point, the home, and the writing shack. Chuck is Vice Chairman of the Board, and like his father before him, an avid fisherman and environmentalist.

David Peterson. Sig and Elizabeth and Pete and Florence Peterson were close, close friends, immediate neighbors, and business partners in the Border Lakes Outfitting Company at Winton, which was the point of departure for Basswood Lake (via Fall Lake and the four-mile portage) and to Peterson's Fishing Camp on Hoist Bay. Their son David and his wife Tess and their children have also been close to Sig and Elizabeth and Listening Point over the years, and share their love of the BWCAW and the North Country. A graduate of MIT, David has pursued a career in engineering in Washington state, Alaska, Duluth, and the Twin Cities, and is President of Arrowhead Management Services. They have lately returned to Ely where they have built their own home on Bear Island Lake. In addition to her copious family duties, Tess is an accomplished artist.

Milt Stenlund and his wife Althea live on Burntside Lake summers and at their home in Grand Rapids, Minnesota winters. Milt was a student of Sig's at Ely Junior College and a close friend for half a century. After World War II service with the 5th Army Air Corps in Australia and New Guinea, Milt earned BS and MS degrees at the University of Minnesota where he researched, wrote, and published the first comprehensive study of the wolf in Minnesota, followed by a 35-year career in wildlife management with the Minnesota DNR, becoming an authority on the wolf and the white tailed deer. He has published many books and articles on wildlife and history such as Popple Leaves and Boot Oil about his career as a wildlife biologist in Northern Minnesota and Burntside Lake - The Early Days 1880-1920, which includes history of the Listening Point area. Milt has received numerous awards for his work from the Isaac Walton League, The Wildlife Society, and the Northwest Sportshow, and has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute.

Dr. David Backes lives in South Milwaukee with wife Judi and four children and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he is Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has described his relationship with Sig Olson in the essay "In search of Sig Olson." In addition to writing Sig's biography, A Wilderness Within, David has written Canoe Country, An Embattled Wilderness and The Wilderness Companion, both published by NorthWord Press. The University of Minnesota Press will be publishing the biography in paperback and a new collection of Sig Olson's magazine articles and speeches on wilderness matters. David is active at the continental level, speaking at meetings in Canada, the US, and Mexico. But what he loves most is the spiritual adventure of wilderness, whether on a remote beach in Mexico or the BWCA in Minnesota.

Other Board members who will be profiled in the next issue are Sigurd T. Olson of Juneau, Alaska; David H. Zenter of Duluth, Minnesota; Dr. Kenneth Bro, Executive Director, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Ashland, Wisconsin; and Mike Link, Director of the Audubon Center of the Northwoods, Sandstone, Minnesota, and Randy Pachal, CPA of Hayward, Wisconsin.