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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted October 15, 2004 Text © 2004 Dave Harmon, Executive Director, George Wright Society. Photo © 2001 and courtesy Sue Ellen Kingsley and Terry Kinzel.

A Tribute to Robert (Bob) Linn

By Dave Harmon

Robert (Bob) Linn  holds the "Heart and Hands Award" presented to him on July 4, 2001, at Churning Rapids. The award recognizes and honors community members who have given of themselves working for peace, justice and the environment. (Photo © 2001 and courtesy Sue Ellen Kingsley and Terry Kinzel)

A native of the Cleveland, Ohio, area, Bob received his undergraduate training nearby at Kent State University. While at Kent State, he began a lifelong association with Isle Royale National Park, the place he loved more than any other in the world. He began doing botanical and ecological research at Isle Royale and went on to receive a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Duke University, doing his dissertation on the ecology of forest succession in the park. During this time he began working for the National Park Service; and he went on to hold a variety of positions at Isle Royale in the 1950s and early 1960s, serving as chief park naturalist from 1958 to 1963. 

While at Isle Royale, he was a founding member of the park's cooperating association, the Isle Royale Natural History Association (IRNHA), and was responsible for starting IRNHA's publications program, which has gone on to become nationally recognized for its excellence. During that period he also participated in some of the first winter research sessions of the park's world-renowned moose-wolf study, working with that study's founder, Durward Allen. After 1963 he continued his NPS career in the service's Washington headquarters, rising to the position of chief scientist. Bob finished his NPS career in the late 1970s by returning to the Keweenaw and helping to create a Cooperative Parks Studies Unit at Michigan Tech.

After his retirement in 1980, Bob co-founded the George Wright Society and established its headquarters in Hancock. The GWS is an international professional association of researchers, resource managers and educators who work in national parks and other protected areas. Through great personal effort, he sustained the fledgling GWS in its early years, and became the organization's first executive director in 1990, a position he held until 1998. He continued to work daily for the GWS until August of this year. All Bob's work for the George Wright Society -- 24 years of full-time labor -- was done entirely on a volunteer basis. Aside from helping start the IRNHA and GWS, Bob also was instrumental in creating the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition (UPEC) in 1975. UPEC remains the only environmental advocacy organization focused exclusively on the entire U.P. In 2001, in recognition of his many accomplishments, Bob was honored with the Heart and Hands Award, which is given locally each year to a person who works for peace, justice and the environment. Bob also received the GWS's highest honor, The George Melendez Wright Award for Excellence, in 2001.

Bob Linn richly deserved these honors, but he did not seek them. A man of great modesty and personal integrity, he preferred to work quietly in the background and let others take the bows. Bob spent his life promoting better research, resource management and education in and about national parks and other protected places; and he always defended the resource values that lie at the heart of the parks. His devotion to Isle Royale, in particular, was nothing short of remarkable. Even after he left the area to work in Washington, Bob managed to make at least one trip to the island each year. In all, he visited Isle Royale for 58 years in a row, making his last trip in July of this year.

He is survived by his former wife, Holley Linn of Hancock, and by his sons Chris (Amy) of Paavola Location and Bruce (Debbie) of Hancock, along with their families.

Anyone wishing to make a contribution to Bob's memory may do so to the Omega House hospice project. The address is: Omega House, 920 W. Water St., Hancock, MI 49930.

Editor's Notes: Keweenaw Now wishes to extend our deepest sympathy to Robert Linn's family. 

Guest author Dave Harmon is the executive director of the George Wright Society.

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