Richard 'Dick' Vogel Wentz, 65

Richard (Dick) Wentz, an outdoorsman, writer and editor, died May 29, 2009, at Providence Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane of heart failure. He was 65.

Born Sept. 20, 1943, in Lancaster, Pa., Dick attended Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pa., and earned a degree in English from The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He received an master of fine arts in fiction from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where he studied under the late novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

He married Jerelyn Nelson on July 20, 1968, in Green Bay, Wis., where both were teaching, Dick with a federal arts project and Jeri at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Dick had a long career in conservation communications, working for the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C., and the State of New Hampshire Fish & Game Department in Concord, NH. He served as communications director for Ducks Unlimited, Inc., in Chicago during its period of growth through the 1980s and subsequently worked as Director of Communications for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody,Wyo.

In 1995, he moved to Sandpoint with his wife, Jeri, where he began work with Keokee Publishing as editor of Flyfisher, the national magazine of the Federation of Fly Fishers. He managed the editorial production of this publication for nearly 10 years.

Dick’s national work and interest in people brought him friendships with many notable figures, from writers and musicians to outdoorsmen and professional athletes. Yet it was often the developmentally disadvantaged individuals he worked with for a period of time in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, that he carried close to his heart. His wit and ability to cut through formality often endeared him to friends and colleagues, and his deft assignment of nicknames — wanted or not — was legendary.

Dick was a voracious reader of fiction and literary works, particularly by writers on the outdoors, nature and western American themes. As a writer himself, he wrote freelance stories for a number of national publications, and was published in several sporting anthologies.

The outdoors was his deepest joy. Above all, he loved wading the riffles of a trout stream and tromping upland game covers with the bevy of bird dogs he owned over the years. Or more likely, they owned him. For with his dogs, or life in general, serious discipline often got second billing whenever there was something thrilling in the air.

An expert fly caster, Dick began throwing a fly rod at age nine and kept a line in the water most of his life. Whether fishing stripers on the East Coast, bonefish in Florida, rainbows in Wyoming or spooky brook trout anywhere he could find them, he was most at home with a good fly rod and an elusive, unspoiled piece of water.

He was one-of-a-kind. And he will be missed.

He was preceded in death by his father, Richard Royer Vogel and his stepfather, John R. Wentz, both of Lancaster, Pa. He is survived by his wife, Jerelyn Wentz of Sandpoint; his mother, Mary Virginia Wentz of Lancaster, Pa., a sister, Elizabeth Woll of Katonah, N.Y. and a brother, Paul Wentz of Marmora, N.J.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in his name to a conservation organization of choice. An informal memorial gathering is pending.