Dr. F. Thomas Ledig

August 13, 1938 - May 20, 2015

Dr. F. Thomas Ledig passed away on May 20, 2015 at 76 from metastatic melanoma. He was a world renowned research scientist in the fields of forest genetics and conservation biology. He could not have been loved more by his family and a host of wonderful friends from all over the world. Tom was born in Dover, New Jersey. After earning his B.S. from Rutgers University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, he went on to become a Full Professor and member of the Board of Permanent Officers of Yale University. In 1979 Tom joined the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station as Director of the Institute of Forest Genetics, located in Berkeley and Placerville, California. Tom traveled the world as a highly sought after expert on forest genetics and conservation, consulting with government and scientific institutions. His research took him to Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Vietnam, and throughout the United States. He was familiar through travel with forest conditions in many other countries. Major recognition of his life’s work includes the Society of American Foresters Barrington Moore Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in biological research; Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a special award from the Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Saltillo, Mexico; and two North American Forest Commission awards. His service as secretary of the UN/FAO/North American Forest Commission’s Forest Genetic Resources Working Group was one of the most rewarding experiences of his career. Yet, his most treasured honor was a 1997 letter, signed by former colleagues at Yale University that reads, in part, “We miss the joie de vivre that left when you left.” Tom retired in 2008 as Senior Scientist in the Pacific Southwest Research Station and continued as an adjunct professor at the University of California-Davis. He remained active in research. His most recent work involved genetic diversity in conifers, evaluating experiments he established in 1973-1974 on the effects of climate change on pitch pine; and working on a National Geographic Society grant to study Coulter pine in Baja California. His career is represented in part by over 135 publications in genetics and physiology. To the end, he maintained his long-time interests in hiking the mountains and the Southwest desert, photography, SCUBA diving, and collecting fine and folk art. Tom is survived by his wife, Linda Marie Lux; three children from a former marriage: Colleen Stanton Cassidy, Sean Cormac Ledig, and Brendan Owen Ledig; his grandson, Nicholaus Vitaly Ledig; brother Alan Lloyd Ledig; and father-in-law Raymond Clyde Lux.