Don Quigley spent a long time at the University of New Hampshire. He grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania where his family spent time in the woods hunting, but it was on a tour of Vietnam where he got interested in forestry. A fellow soldier had started a forestry program in California and been kicked out, but he talked about forestry a lot and Don became fascinated. When he returned stateside he decided to use the GI Bill to go north to New Hampshire.
While he was a student in the 1970s forestry was popular and the classes were huge. Later new topics like environmental conservation would overlap with the forestry curriculum and lure students into new fields. When Don finished his undergraduate degree, he enrolled in the graduate program and also worked as a woodlands manager for the university, which owns 4,000 acres of forestland.
At the end of grad school, there were commercial opportunities out there, but he was already teaching a few classes at the Thompson School and he liked it. A position in Harvesting and Wood Products was available; he applied and was hired. He stayed for 40 years.
Outside of academia he competed in lumberjack sports—mostly chopping and sawing events—all over the world, eventually starting a company that produced events for Stihl. This fall he served as the announcer at the Fryeburg (Me.) Fair woodsman competition.
In Lee, where he lives, he is the town moderator and serves on the zoning board of adjustment.
In 1993 Don was also one of the founders of the Timber Harvesting Council and the professional logging programs that go with it. The founding was in response to proposed legislation that would have restricted timber harvesting. The state forester recommended that the logging community “get their act together.” And with Don Quigley as one of the folks at the helm, they did.