Mr. Hennig was born August 9, 1942, in Batavia, NY, and was raised in the rural area between Buffalo and Rochester, NY. He received a bachelor's degree from the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University in 1964 and a master's degree in forest management from Michigan State University at Lansing in 1970. In the late 1960s he served four years in Washington, DC, and Seoul, Korea, as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force, attaining the rank of captain.

He was employed in forest management for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for about 30 years, retiring in 2003. While serving in field offices in Grayling, Cadillac, and Kalkaska, heÊsupervised the planting of millions of trees in reforestation projects, monitored the health of tree populations and the condition of wildlife from white-tailed deer to the Kirtland's warbler, and assessed ecological impacts of proposed uses of forest resources. He supervised tree culling and logging, worked with geologists to determineÊwhich state land could be leased for oil wells, and helped manage campgrounds, ski and biking trails, and other recreational facilities on state lands.

Mr. Hennig was an active fisherman, hunter, target shooter and sometime sailor on Grand Traverse Bay. He volunteered several times on teams fighting forest fires in Western states, and in 2003, he served on the NASA shuttle recovery team that searched for human and mechanical remains after the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas, killing its crew. A man of wide intellectual interests, he was also an avid reader on subjects from European history to beekeeping, a lover of music from Wagner to the Carter Family singers, and a member of Mensa.

He is survived by his mother, Mae E. Hennig, of Indian Falls, NY; a brother, Martin Hennig (Joanne Weigel) of Scott's Valley, Cal.; a sister, Barbara Ireland (Patrick Wilson) of Cranbury, NJ; a nephew and two nieces.Ê