Sam, 84, died Feb. 8, 2013, in Poulsbo, Washington. He was born December 11, 1928, in San Francisco and graduated from Lowell High School. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Forestry from the University of Montana.

Sam served in the Navy during the Korean War, based at the Kodiak Naval Air Station in Alaska. Following jumping stints in Missoula in 1949-50 and 1955, Sam worked as a Forest Service ranger in Bozeman, doing this partly while pursuing his master's degree.

His career took him from the Forest Service in Montana and Idaho to the Federal Water Quality Administration in Portland, to the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and Seattle.