Robert E. Green

Wasilla resident Robert Edward Green, 69, was attended by family when he passed away Monday, June 2, 2008 at a family home in Big Lake. Friends and acquaintances are invited to join a remembrance for him that will be held from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 13, at Evangelo’s Restaurant.

A private celebration of life will be conducted at the family homestead north of Healy on Father’s Day, June 15. Green’s ashes will be shared by his children and disseminated on the family property in the Alaska Range.

A resident of Alaska for 32 years, Green was born Dec 10, 1938 in Gloucester, Mass., the son of Robert and Edith Green. At a very young age he realized he was an outdoorsman in the purest sense of the word. At 16 he was trapping muskrats near the Berkshire mountains, often opting to skip school in order to pursue his outdoor interests.

Green, who was nicknamed “Trapper” in school, played fullback on the varsity football team. He graduated from Northampton High in 1958 and applied for the Forestry Technician School at the University of Massachusetts. He was deferred for one year but began work with the state of Massachusetts Forest Service in Great Barrington. The deferment was fortunate because it was during that summer of 1959 when he met Mary Lou, a waitress at an Italian restaurant in town. After meeting her, he returned for another meal to ask her for a date. This led to a commitment of 43 years.

Green completed his associate’s degree in forestry at the University of Massachusetts in 1961, and secured work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a forest technician in White Mountain National Forest in Maine. On Sept 9, 1961 Robert married Mary Louise Chapin.

Green graduated from Utah State University in Logan with a bachelor of science degree in forestry in 1965. He was a member of the Xi Sigma Pi Lambda Chapter.

Green’s career in the U.S. Forest Service spanned 32 years through eight national forests in Maine, Virginia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho, Washington and Alaska, including in the Tongass and Chugach national forests. Some of his Forestry career highlights included assignment to the FBI in order to pursue timber thefts, working with the Secret Service to guard Lady Bird Johnson, and an assignment as an oral communication instructor.

Green served for 20 years on the board of the Alaska Frontier Trappers Association as a founder and president. He enjoyed trapping with his sons during weekends along the Susitna River and in the Nancy Lake area. He published the newsletter "Wolf Tracks.”

Green owned Alaska Range Trapping Supply and Fort Green, an Alaska gift shop and trapping museum. In 2002, Fort Green opened its doors to present the history of American frontiers and the fur industry, and showcase how the fur trade drove the settlement of North America. Green especially enjoyed meeting the customers, vendors and friends who came to visit the shop, and it delighted him to share his stories if they were interested, his family said.

In 2002 he received a Trapper of the Year award; and in 2007 Green was inducted into the Trapper Hall of Fame by the Alaska Trappers Association.

His family wrote, “Our Dad will be remembered as a committed husband, a loving father and grandfather. He was enamored with Alaska and pursued his dream to live here. He was often eloquent, always stubborn and sometimes coarse; but these are the qualities that we grew to love and remember most fondly. We will miss him deeply.”

He is survived by his sister Nancy (Peter) Tierney of Littleton, Mass.; his wife Betty; his children Carrie (Robert) Lesher of Sunbury, Penn., Daniel (Angela) Green of Wasilla, Gregory (Angela) Green of South Jordan, Utah, Benjamin Green of Big Lake, Rebekah (Louie) Silveira of Issaquah, Wash., Abigail (Shan) Sheppard of Big Lake, Angie Baskett of Wasilla, and 14 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents Robert and Edith Green; and is re-united with his first wife and love, Mary Louise Chapin.