Leader of the Wildlife Pack Leaves a Legacy

Jerry and Helen Stephens establish first endowed professorship at UW-Stevens Point to honor their son.

 

There was something about Doug Stephens.

It might have been his early sense of protectiveness toward all wild things. “He was absolutely fascinated with wildlife,” recalled his father. As a teenager during family vacations on Lake Owen near Cable, Wisconsin, the Peoria, Illinois, native got to know the local game warden and volunteered as a sturgeon guard, watching over the fish during spawning season and staying on the lookout for poachers.

Doug's special quality also might have had something to do with his single-minded focus on his favorite subject, wildlife.  “Doug would come to our house,” said his friend Ted Dremel (’92, BS Wildlife Management). “He would walk in and sit down on a broken chair. Doug would never take off his hat or coat, like he had to get out of there fast. He did not say a whole lot but would listen with a smirk on his face. When he was ready he would throw out a few comments. We never had time to talk about school. There were just too many topics to discuss. Our favorite discussions were about wildlife adaptations, theories, concepts and ideas. He spent hours in that chair. We always had good conversations.”

What is an endowed professorship?
An endowed professorship honors both the faculty recipient and the donor or a person the donor wishes to recognize.

The gift to establish the professorship is invested and generates sustained earnings that provide the holder of the title with the financial flexibility to support advanced research and research assistance, conference attendance, student stipends, up-to-date teaching technology or other uses that would not otherwise be possible.  The principal is preserved in perpetuity.

An endowed professorship is awarded to an individual who demonstrates outstanding teaching, as well as research and outreach excellence. Endowed professorships enable the university to be competitive when recruiting sought-after new faculty and retaining highly regarded, experienced teachers. 

For more information about endowed professorship opportunities, contact: uwsp.foundation@uwsp.edu

Doug’s career plans included graduate research, most likely under the guidance of his mentor, Ray Anderson, emeritus professor of wildlife. Doug was considering a move to Minnesota to begin a prairie chicken research project.  “I think he would have stayed as close to academia as he could while still being able to get his hands on wild critters,” said another close friend, Kieran Fleming (’91 BS Wildlife Management, ’96 MS Natural Resources).

Then again,  his natural leadership skills certainly set Doug apart.

“Doug was the lead on a black bear research project in 1991. It strikes me now, almost 25 years later, how young he was doing all that with authority,” said Fleming. “In his short life he also headed up the deer project. During his time on the bear project he caught several dozen bears, which were fitted with radio telemetry collars. He was very good at this and exuded confidence and competence when dealing with live and sometimes angry beasts. Maybe the bears sensed this and just gave up.”

Unfortunately, Doug's untimely death put an end to all these outstanding qualities. It happened on a winter day on the Brule River in Ashland County. Doug was standing atop a bear den when he collapsed and died instantly. He was 23 years old. His family and friends can never truly understand why he died so young and so suddenly. Perhaps it is enough to believe that the land simply called him.

The Stephens family, which includes Doug’s four siblings and their families, established a student research fund with memorial gifts in Doug’s name. In 2001, Doug’s parents established the Douglas R. Stephens Scholarship Endowment, which has, to date, provided financial assistance to 16 undergraduate wildlife students. They also helped launch the Douglas Stephens Boone and Crockett Club Wildlife Research Fellowship for outstanding undergraduate researchers.

Added to these tributes is the newly established Douglas R. Stevens Professorship in Wildlife, which is a historic first for the university. The professorship will create a new full-time faculty position, and will help build the nation’s largest university wildlife program into one of the best by expanding opportunities for faculty-mentored research.

Dremel noted that UW-Stevens Point gives its students opportunities to get involved in working on wildlife-related projects. “Students only have to keep their eye out for projects that interest them. I hope this type of extracurricular activity can still occur.”

“Doug was our friend,” said Dremel. “We hope he will be remembered as a person and not just a name. I hope people will be reminded of his passion for research, his thoughts and ideas, his ability to think in a ‘different way’ and his dry humor.”

“The world will never know what could have been since his enormous potential left us outside that bear den back in 1992,” added Fleming. “However, this incredible gift for the professorship will increase the likelihood that many young minds will be developed to a point that, collectively, they will compensate for the void Doug left when he died.”

“When nature has work to be done,
She creates a genius to do it.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson