Arthur Bernard Recknagel papers

Biographical History

Arthur Bernard Recknagel, born December 15, 1883 in Brooklyn, N.Y., was the son of John Herman and Marie (Westerman) Recknagel. He attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Yale University where he received his undergraduate degree in 1904 and his Master of Forestry in 1906. He married Mary Thomas Miller of Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1909, and they settled in Ithaca, N.Y. The couplehad two children. Mary died in 1945 and in 1947 Recknagel married Helen McCormick Johnston.

Recknagel worked for the United States Forest Service (1906-1914) and during this time, he also studied forestry at the Eberswalde Forst Akademie, University of Berlin, Germany (1911-1912). He then took a teaching position with the Department of Forestry at the College of Agriculture, Cornell University - a position he held until 1943. While at Cornell, Recknagel held a number of positions including Professor of Forest Management and Utilization; Director of the Arnot Forest; and Chairman of the Forestry Department. He carried out extensive research on the development of private forest practice and worked as a consulting forester for private timber owners, including Finch, Pruyn and Company, the St. Regis Paper Company (Franklin County, N.Y.), and the A.P.W. Paper Company in the Adirondack Mountain area of New York State.

In 1917,Recknagel became an active member of the Empire State Forest Products Association., serving at various times as Vice-President, Secretary, Director, Chairman of the Forestry Committee, and member of the Keep New York Green Committee. He wrote and published many articles and reports on forestry (pubic and private) and forest management and served as editor for theBulletin of the Empire State Forest Products Association. In 1930, he was appointed to an advisory committee for the New York State Committee on Wood Utilization, a sub-group of the National Committee on Wood Utilization, which was formed to develop a national lumber code. He was a member of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and worked on various committees including the Committee on Terminology (1917) and the War Committee (1917-1919). Recknagel also was active for many years with the SAF New York Section, where he contributed research for use in legislation regarding forest policy and taxation in New York State. In 1942, he was named Area Forester for New York State in the Timber Production War Project administered by the Federal War Production Board and the U. S. Forest Service. He also was a member of the Adirondack Mountain Club. Prior to his death August 8, 1962, a section of the Arnot Forest, located in the Adirondack Mountains, was renamed the "A.B. Recknagel Memorial Forest" in appreciation of his service to the forestry profession.