Charles Burton Sigler ( Missoula 1953 )
posted: Jan 25, 2010
Chuck, 78, died January 11, 2010, at his home in Columbia Falls, Montana, from Sarcoma Cancer. He was born March 14, 1931, in Oklahoma City, OK, and attended high school at Marshall, Okla., where he graduated in 1949. He was president of his sophomore and junior class and captain of the football team his senior year.
Chuck graduated from Oklahoma A&M with a degree in forestry and jumped at Missoula during the 1953 season before entering the U.S. Army and becoming a helicopter pilot.
Upon his discharge in 1957 he received an appointment as forester in the St. Joe N.F. in Idaho.
Chuck later flew as a commercial helicopter pilot before starting his career with the National Park Service. He later started a career as a commercial helicopter pilot with Petroleum Helicopters, the world's largest helicopter company. While a commercial pilot, he also flew for Helicopters de Colombia (Bogot, Colombia), Agro Aereo (Guayaquil, Ecuador), Roberts Aircraft (Boise) and Columbia Helicopters (Portland, Ore.). In addition, he was a civilian flight instructor at the U.S. Army helicopter school at Ft. Wolters, Texas.
Chuck's first appointment as a National Park Service Ranger was at Mt. Rainier National Park. Within three years, he was the supervisory ranger of the Paradise Ski Area and the search and rescue operations on main routes of Mt. Rainier.
He retired in January 1995. Other accomplishments during his Park Service career include graduating from the FBI academy, SCUBA certification, and being a founder of the Association of National Park Rangers in 1977 in Jackson Hole, Wyo.