A Most Wonderful Legacy by Josh Palumbo, Forest Management Coordinator. When I arrived from upstate New York to work in the lovely Blue Ridge Mountains, the first Nature Foundation volunteer I met was Chip Morgan. Arriving with a love for trees and a limited knowledge (or interest frankly) of other elements of our environment, the curious mind of Chip Morgan opened the natural world to me. This Nine Minute Naturalist will attempt to express my appreciation for all the time I spent with Chip Morgan.
This past week Chip Morgan lost his battle with cancer. Losing Chip is painful but his passing triggers lovely reflections that reveal a legacy in my life and those lucky enough to learn at his side. To simply call him a Nature Foundation volunteer would be insufficient. He was an enthusiastic student of the environment emanating a contagious energy. His desire to impart his knowledge was almost as great as his craving to learn.
Many people reading this will have known Chip well but, in an attempt, to help those who had the misfortune of not knowing him, I am going to impart lessons I learned from Chip. The first lesson is to surround yourself with those that make you a better person. It began with his better half Dahne. She was the rock that held Chip in place and her affect magnified Chip’s strengths. This lesson was especially evident in the diversity of people Chip held dear. If you had an expanse of knowledge on subjects ranging from geology, botany, cultural history or really any subject that piqued his interest, Chip was going to allow you to make him a better person. Chip could often be found scurrying through the woods with the most unlikely of friends, making each other better one step at a time.
Another valuable lesson that goes in tandem with lesson one is to have a curious mind. Explore to great depths that which sparks your interest and do not settle for a surface level knowledge. Chip was insatiable when a question was left unanswered. If Chip cared to live in the world of cell phones and text messages, no one would have been safe from his relentless thirst for knowledge. If he found a plant on one of his explorations, he would collect at portion to take home study under a microscope. National Park rules about collecting plants were a mere suggestion if it stood in the way of Chip’s need to know.
Lesson three is that retirement is not the end line. As a retired eye doctor, he could have spent his retirement age living an easy life on a country club. Instead, Chip could be found auditing a college course, maintaining a trail in the Shenandoah National Park, or teaching a fern class in the Shamokin Spring Nature Preserve. His energy far surpassed his age and made everyone assume he was twenty years younger than he was.
