Gregory Mark Killinger

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Thursday, 29 May 2014 12:54

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Services for Gregory Mark Killinger will be held noon Saturday, May 31, at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church.
A reception will follow at the church’s Corrigan Hall.
Greg died Mary 25 while hiking on the Mt. Verstovia Trail. He was 52.
He was born June 1, 1961, in Salem, Ore., the son of Frances and Laurence Killinger.
Greg was the first of his siblings to move to Alaska, in the early 1980s. During his more than 31 years in Sitka, he held numerous U.S. Forest Service positions in the Tongass, both locally and temporary work details outside the area. After serving as a volunteer and as a hydrology technician from 1983 to 1985, he worked as a biological technician for the Forestry Sciences Lab and Sitka Ranger District, from 1985 to 1988.
He was the Sitka District fisheries biologist from 1988 to 1995. Before becoming a staff officer on the Tongass, he also served as the fish, wildlife, watershed, ecology and subsistence district staff in Sitka, and for six years was the Craig district ranger on Prince of Wales Island.
He was a temporary assistant to the national watershed staff in Washington, D.C., in 2001. During the same year, he was the acting district ranger at the Cordova Ranger District on the Chugach National Forest and the acting district ranger at Admiralty National Monument in Juneau.
Greg earned a bachelor’s degree in wildlife science from Oregon State University in 1983 and a master’s in natural resource management, fisheries and wildlife, from Virginia Tech in 1994.
He married Melissa Ann “Lisa” Petro on July 21, 1990, at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church.
Among his community activities was serving as chairman of the Sitka chapter of Ducks Unlimited.
He enjoyed both watching and playing basketball, and was a runner. An avid outdoorsman, he loved to fish and hunt, which took him to more places than his Alaskan wife had been to. To train for his many hunting trips, he ran his favorite trail at Mt. Verstovia. It was there he took his final walk into the forest.
Greg was preceded in death by his parents, Frances Lepper and Laurence Killinger.
He is survived by his wife, Lisa Killinger of Sitka; brother and sister-in-law Martin and Raedonna Killinger of Salem, Ore.; sister and brother-in-law Karla and Charles Kliever and their daughter Kalani Kliever, all of Salem; sister-in-law Marcia (Mike) Bradley of Gig Harbor, Wash.; brothers-in-law Steve (Pam) Petro and Donald Petro, of Sitka; and nieces, nephews, grand- and great-nieces and nephews.
Honorary pallbearers are Paul Matter, Steve Paustian, Steve Brady, Dave Gordon, Mike Reif, Jason Anderson, Pat Heuer, Robert Miller, Dr. Kraft, Randy Ferguson and Hans vonRekowski.

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