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G. Donald Kucera
In 1970 when I went to my first Sierra Club meeting in Tucson, I met Don Kucera. He, along with Doug Shakel, had recently formed the La Sección del Rincón of the Sierra Club. And not surprisingly, Don was the chair.
Don describes the hierarchy of the National Sierra Club at that time as “lumpers”. Everything was in a lump, not spread out to reach members in different areas of the state or region. He said it was this way in Michigan, too, where Club members were expected to go to Chicago for meetings. In Ann Arbor, when Don and his colleagues tried to organize a Group, or Section, as he was calls it, Sierra Club staff members came from Chicago to tell them it was a “bad idea” to splinter off from the multi-state Chapter. Don and his buddies persevered and began the Mackinac Section of the Sierra Club. Don was its first chair. The Mackinac Group was involved in National Sierra Club issues, particularly the Grand Canyon and Glenn Canyon as well as local problems. For example, at that time lots of farms were being sold for development in Michigan; the Mackinac Group tried to rescue the farms for open space. This was the era of the Birth of the Environmental Movement in the United States.
In Arizona, before Don and Doug began organizing us in Southern Arizona, everything was run from Phoenix. I think the Phoenix Sierra Club folks resented the upstarts from Baja Arizona. ( I remember the battles between the Tucsonans and the Phoenicians. As I recall “way back when” the Phoenix members' main interests were outings and trails, while the Tucsonans were more interested in rescuing the environment and preserving habitats.)
The Southern Arizona Group was first called La Sección del Rincón to reflect the Spanish/Mexican influence of the region. After all, Tucson is located in the area acquired in the Gadsden Purchase and the Group took in the entire southeastern corner of the state. (The name La Sección del Rincón was used until the mid-1980s).
As a youngster Don lived in the small town of Ironwood in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and freely explored the out-of-doors in his wide-ranging quest for knowledge. He was also interested in electronics, constructing a variety of electronics and repairing radios. On his shortwave radio he listened to all sorts of programs including the BBC and programs broadcast by Juan Perón, then the President of Argentina. For two years he was mailed all sorts of Perón's propaganda.
Don graduated from Ironwood High School but he also attended Lane Tech High School in Chicago where he lived with his dad. At LTHS he signed up for the machine shop but switched to the electronic class since he was more familiar with that subject. Don says he finished all the class projects in record time, so the teacher asked him to convert a radio to the new FM technology. Don did that in a couple of days. After that the teacher put him in charge of the class and the teacher took off. Don says he should have stayed in the machine shop!
On weekends he would sometimes take the train to Ironwood where his mother lived. When he stayed in Chicago for the weekends he spent his time exploringthe city. His favorite places were the Field Museum (of natural history), the nearby Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium.
After high school Don attended Ironwood Community College, El Camino College in California, and the University of Michigan but he never did graduate because he was traveling so much for his jobs. But, he did find time to volunteer with the Girl Scouts and take his three daughters on canoe outings and camping trips.
In California he worked on the Snark missile*. After leaving California Don returned to Ironwood and immediately received three job offers, He took a job with Chrysler Missiles near Detroit and became part of the team that worked on the Redstone and Jupiter missiles along with members of Werner Von Braun's team. At the end of that contract, Don acquired a position with Bendix Systems in Ann Arbor.
In the late 1960's, Kitt Peak National Observatory hired Don to work with their high- altitude astronomy project team, and followed that with another construction project to build spectrometers for the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft probes. Both 1 and 2 are still exploring outerspace! When that program was discontinued Don took over the small optical coating lab on the University of Arizona campus.
Don is an avid photographer and writer and has received awards for both. He has long been active in the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society and is active in the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail Association. Read his article “Was Anza in the Pet Trade? [on page 7]” **
Don enjoys sailing in the Sea of Cortez and Lake Superior. He is in his 28th year of being a VIP (Volunteers-In-Parks) with the National Park Sevice and was on the Governor's Advisory Commission on Archeology for 3 years.
The Rincon Group and the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, and indeed, the state of Arizona, was fortunate that Kitt Peak hired Don all those years ago. Thank you, G Donald Kucera, for settling in southern Arizona.
*Snark was a low-flying continental missile. Radar couldn't detect it because it was so low to the surface. I suggest reading Lewis Carroll's poem, “The Hunting of the Snark” to learn more!
**http://www.anzahistorictrail.org/noticias/Noticias_55_Final.pdf = (“Was Anza in the Pet Trade” is on page 7)
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