People in the News

• Jacob Biederman of Kalispell is enrolled at Champlain College for the fall 2016 semester. He is a first-year student studying game programming.

• Laura Gay of Kalispell began classes Aug. 29 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She plans to graduate with the Class of 2020.

• Memoirs highlighting the career of former University of Montana faculty member B. Riley McClelland who worked for the National Park Service for 42 years now are available to the public in the UM Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections.

McClelland taught courses in recreation and park management, among other areas, at UM’s College of Forestry and Conservation from 1977 until his retirement in 1993.

He also conducted research on cavity-nesting birds and bald eagle migration in Glacier National Park.

The memoirs summarize McClelland’s long career with the National Park Service at Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. He details his own work experiences and changes in the park’s management and policies while analyzing what makes these parks special to so many people.

In his memoirs he recorded this remembrance:

“On the morning of 14 August 1949, I was in the Biscuit Basin parking area, two miles west of Old Faithful. It was shortly after dawn as I watched the dense fog take on mysterious shapes in the Basin. From out of the vapors, a person in uniform gradually appeared. It was ranger-naturalist George Marler, on duty to observe and record hydrothermal activity. What a wonderful job! I was 14 years old and that episode established my career goal. I wanted to be a ranger in YNP.”

The memoirs are available online at http://scholarworks.umt.edu/mcclelland/.

• The Area Toastmasters held their annual Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest Sept. 18 at the Evergreen Fire Hall.

The winning contestant was Kathy Anderson of the Columbia Falls Speaks Toastmasters Club. She advances to the Division contest in Helena on Oct. 8.

For more information, contact area director Kristi Hatfield at 871-7999 or distinguished Toastmaster RaeDeen Heupel at 890-1171.

— Wendy Davis of Ronan was recently elected president of the Mission Valley Republican Women’s Club in St. Ignatius. The newly chartered club was approved by the Montana Federation of Republican Women and the National Federation of Republican Women.

The club was chartered Aug. 24 and now has 32 members. Davis will preside for a one-year term.