Jack Ward Thomas spoke with a slow Texas drawl but had a lightning quick mind that propelled him to national heights.

The wildlife biologist’s rapid-fire mind also propelled him to literary success. Thomas wrote, co-wrote and edited more than 250 books, book chapters and professional papers about wildlife and ecosystem management.

Thomas’ books included his 2015 autobiography, “Forks in the Trail,” the story of a remarkable life, a life that sadly ended late last week.

The former La Grande resident died May 26 at his home in Florence, Montana, after a 2-1/2-year battle with cancer. Thomas, 81, had lived in Montana since 1997. He earlier resided in La Grande for 21 years before President Bill Clinton appointed him chief of the U.S. Forest Service in late 1993.

Thomas directed the Forest Service for three years before stepping down to take a position as a professor at the University of Montana. He lived in Montana for the remainder of his life but made a number of return trips to La Grande, a place he always had a fondness for in his heart. It was something Thomas’ wife, Kathleen, said he carried with him even as he moved on from the Grande Ronde Valley.

“Oh my gosh, he loved La Grande,” she said. “He loved the folks of La Grande. He loved everything about it.”

Torgy Torgerson, a retired U.S. Forest Service entomologist who worked with Thomas in La Grande at the Forestry and Range Sciences Lab, said he was a man of considerable gifts, ones he used to instill positive changes in wildlife and ecosystem management.

“He was very astute politically. He was able to use his political savvy to influence changes in forestry, land and wildlife management,” said Torgerson, who is now lives in Anacortes, Washington.

Thomas made an indelible impression on elk research while based in La Grande.

In the late 1980s he started the revolutionary Starkey Project, a research project where elk, deer and cattle are studied in a 21,000-acre enclosure. The project was one of the first of its kind in the world. It is a cooperative venture directed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The project is based 28 miles southwest of La Grande on the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range.

Mike Wisdom, a research wildlife biologist and Starkey Project team leader, said that many people objected to the project before it started, but Thomas was able to convince the naysayers of its value. He did so by speaking before groups of people that were often filled with individuals with contrary views. Thomas drew upon his communication skills to win people over for the Starkey Project and other cutting-edge concepts.

“He was a great storyteller. He had an appropriate story for whatever situation he was dealing with. His stories had a purpose to support a point of view,” Wisdom said.

For the complete story, please see Wednesday’s edition of The Observer.