By Charvi Magdaong, FireRescue1 Staff
Douglas Coyle, the founder of Wildland Firefighter and HOME & Fire, died Saturday of a heart attack.
The fifth-generation Oregonian studied forestry at Oregon State University, where he graduated in 1965. After a short stint with a fire department in Sweet Home, Ore., he climbed the ranks of the Oregon Department of Forestry, where he served six years of his 34-year career with the ODF as the fire protection director.
Even after Coyle retired, he remained a strong voice in the firefighting world. He and others created Wildland Firefighter in 1996, serving as the publication’s president before it was sold to Elsevier Public Safety. Coyle also had a large influence in the building of the National Wildland Firefighter Monument in Boise, Idaho. And it is to Coyle’s credit that the Wildland Firefighter Foundation would not exist today without his efforts.
He leaves behind his wife, Harriet, who has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Coyle’s name to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. The address is WF Foundation, 2049 Airport Way, Boise, Idaho, 83705. Please visit the Wildland Firefighter Foundation’s online website for more information on how to make a donation, which can be accessed here.
In the coming days, the editors of Wildland Firefighter and FireRescue1 will be working on a feature piece that will better detail the life of a man who has given so much to the firefighting community. This important figure will be missed.