Mike da Luz Memorial Student Scholarship
In 2013, AFE board member Mike da Luz passed away. Mike was instrumental in the financial growth and future visioning of AFE. His clear and intelligent analysis and wisdom are greatly missed. In his honor, Mike's family partnered with AFE to create "The Mike da Luz Memorial Student Scholarship" to help fund students travel to attend conferences and other educational events. We are very grateful to the family for this opportunity to honor Mike by continuing to foster his vision of knowledge transfer and fire ecology education. All donations will be used exclusively to support students in attending events.
Read about past scholarship award winners, and please consider donating to the scholarship fund to support student travel in the future!
Mike Da Luz
about mike
Michael Andrew da Luz was born October 24, 1949 and passed away October 13, 2013, at home surrounded by his family, following a short battle with kidney cancer. Michael was most proud of his family. He was a loving husband to Althea, his wife of 41 years. He was a great dad, role model, and mentor to his son Nicholas, daughter Michelle, and son-in-law Matthew.
He took great joy in being an energetic and playful “Bud” to his granddaughter Quinn. He was admired as a brother, son in-law, brother in-law, uncle, cousin, and nephew. Mike was a proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley School of Forestry and completed graduate studies through the Silviculture Institute at Oregon State University and University of Washington.
He enjoyed a long and fulfilled career as a forester, working with the U.S. Forest Service for more than 30 years throughout California, Oregon, and Colorado. Following his federal retirement in 2005, he worked with ESRI, a geographic mapping software company, for the past 8 years. In retirement he remained actively engaged in his profession, serving on the Board of Directors of the Association for Fire Ecology and participating with other related organizations.
He enjoyed a wide variety of work experiences, but found particular passion and excitement as a wildland firefighter and responding to natural disaster incidents. He relished opportunities to share knowledge about land and applied fire management by mentoring young professionals, serving as a university guest lecturer, hosting field trips, or during casual walks in the woods. He cared greatly about people and touched the lives of many friends and colleagues, who fondly knew him as “Mikey”.
He left his mark on many forested landscapes and looked forward to playing an active role in habitat conservation into the future. Mike was an adventurer and enjoyed road trips as much as international travel. He especially loved spending time in the Hawaiian Islands and any opportunity to snorkel in tropical waters around the globe. He enjoyed running, downhill skiing, whittling, playing guitar and ukulele, photography, and sketching his favorite landscapes. Mike lived his life fully and will be remembered by many with his thumb up and a smile on his face. He was deeply loved and is profoundly missed.
