My Life...and Then Some: A Memoir?

For 98 years, Herb Wisner has lived a remarkable life. Raised in an extraordinary childhood home near the Jersey shore, his journeys took him to colleges in Alabama and New York, to overseas exploits while in the Army Airforce during WWII, and to a teaching career that stretched from rural Unadilla, New York, an Audubon camp in Wisconsin, and finally west – to Eugene, Oregon. In compelling words accompanied by hundreds of photos, this fascinating autobiography of a full and meaningful life shares Herb’s stories of adventures for nearly a century. It includes vivid portraits of family and friends whose paths have crossed his. He remembers them all. Herb’s stories are told in his unique voice and with gentle humor. Born in 1922, he describes his rich childhood growing up on an old 5-acre estate near Asbury Park, New Jersey, where his parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all lived together, running the place as a summer hotel for guests who returned year after year to spend the entire summer. He paints vivid pictures of little-known, behind-the-scenes situations when stationed in Italy, Libya, and Egypt during WWII. Returning home from the war, he details meeting Ruth Usher, the love of his life, and changing career directions to become a teacher and the lifelong naturalist he still is. Teaching is in Herb’s blood. His father, aunts, and uncles were teachers. From them, he also inherited a love of birds and the natural world that turned him into a biologist and ornithologist.You will travel with Herb and his family across the United States, discovering places both familiar and obscure. You will learn lessons in history and natural history. You will share Herb’s deep appreciation of birds and the natural world, and his life-long love of teaching—from instructing not-always-attentive junior high and high school students in Unadilla, New York, to inspiring hundreds of students in the biology department at the University of Oregon. After retirement, his students were the attendees of the numerous slide lectures Herb gave for many organizations in the Eugene area, and the participants in natural history tours in Oregon offered by Elderhostel (now Road Scholar), for which he served as guide. Many still come up to Herb to exclaim “you were the best teacher I ever had!” Herb Wisner is a man who loves his family and friends, and his family and friends love him back. That love shines throughout this book, as his daughter and two sons grow up, yet return again and again to be with him and their mom, Ruth. Together they share trips, a love of gardening and birding, and numerous family gatherings. Two now-grown grandchildren are part of the family, and a great grandchild is on the way……and still Herb has stories to tell. Read more