Necrology

Michael Carleton Virkler '27

Jan. 3, 1906-Jan. 31, 2004

Michael Carleton Virkler ’27, a retired small-business owner and Adirondack woodsman and conservationist, was born on January 3, 1906, in Castorland, on the western edge of the Adirondacks. The eldest of the five children of Sylvester F. and Lillian Bent Virkler, he grew up in Castorland and was graduated in 1923 from Lowville Academy. “Mike” Virkler entered Hamilton that year, bringing with him an abiding enthusiasm for outdoor life. Gaining a reputation as “one of the strong, silent men of the open,” and one who had actually climbed Mount Marcy, he joined Lambda Chi Alpha and played football and hockey.

Following his graduation in 1927 and a brief tour of Europe that included a summer session at Heidelberg University, Mike Virkler returned to his hometown. He went to work in his father’s coal and cattle-feed business in Castorland, where, except for the World War II years, he would continue to reside for the rest of his long life. In early 1941, prior to Pearl Harbor, he left Castorland to enlist in the U.S. Army. He was commissioned in the Field Artillery, and his assignments included military police and liaison officer, assisting with the handling of prisoners of war.

Discharged from the Army as a first lieutenant at the end of 1946, Mike Virkler rejoined his father in the family business, then primarily a coal and heating oil dealership. He succeeded his father as its owner in 1953 and continued to operate it until his retirement in 1982. A past commander of the local American Legion post and a life member of the Lowville Masonic Lodge, he was also a longtime volunteer fireman and had served as mayor of the village of Castorland in 1954-55.

Most of Mike Virkler’s activities, however, were reflections of his passion for the outdoors. He was a dedicated hunter and a licensed wilderness guide who, with a team of horses and a wagon, transported deer hunters into the Adirondacks’ remoter regions for more than 50 years. Also a certified tree farmer, he maintained numerous woodlots and engaged in logging well into his 80s, always respectful of nature and careful to practice conservation through forest management. In addition, as a volunteer, he worked with forest rangers on search and rescue missions.

In the early 1960s, Mike Virkler and his wife, the former Hilda L. Yancey, whom he had married in 1953, designed and fashioned by hand on leased land a log hunting camp on Buck Pond in the Town of Webb. In time, with its unique construction and harmoniously blending into its natural setting, the cabin gained recognition as a masterpiece of its kind. When the property was sold to the State of New York to become a part of its vast forest preserve, however, the cabin seemed to be doomed to destruction. But a long crusade to save it resulted finally in its removal from the original site and its reconstruction elsewhere. Today the Virklers’ “Buck Lake Club Camp,” which was dedicated in 1997, is on permanent display at the Adirondack Museum on Blue Mountain Lake as “a memorial to native craftsmanship and a vanished way of life in the Adirondacks.”

M. Carleton Virkler, a “scholar of the wild” who lived in utter harmony with nature, died on January 31, 2004, at a health care facility in Lowville, at the age of 98. Besides his wife of 50 years, he is survived by a daughter, Joan, born of his previous marriage, in 1931, to Elsie Distler, and by a brother. Wearing his red hat, ancient blue “1927” sweater dating from his college days, and his corncob pipe, Mike Virkler became a familiar presence at reunions on College Hill. A dedicated alumnus in his quiet way, he will long be remembered.

 

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