Les Raduenz Woods dedicated in campus arboretum

Editor’s note:  For an enlarged version  — which shows  a current day aerial of campus and the Les Raduenz Woods (outlined in green) with inset images from 1960 (pre-campus and mostly farm fields) and 1992 (transitional stage of arboretum development) — click on image above.

A ceremony was held Friday (May 15) to dedicate “Les Raduenz Woods,” a 22-acre forest/woodland south of Circle Drive across from the Office of Facilities Management. Raduenz was a central figure in development of the Cofrin Arboretum and UW-Green Bay campus for 35 years. He retired in 2006 as director of Facilities Management, a position he held for 12 years. Raduenz took a special interest in this area, overseeing a tree planting program that has led to its conversion into an early successional woodland and, eventually, an extension of Mahon Woods, one of the Arboretum’s most important natural features. Others who contributed significantly to the development of Les Raduenz Woods included faculty members Dr. Keith White, Dr. Paul Sager, and founding Chancellor Edward Weidner; Facilities Management staff members Mike Vanlanen, Lylas Dequaine, Dennis Nellis, Jim Stiefvater, and Paul Pinkston; and students like Neil Diboll, who eventually became a pioneer in ecological restoration through the establishment of his company, Prairie Nursery, located near Westfield, Wis.