Charles Henry Racine ’63

Charles Henry Racine ’63, a research ecologist who studied Alaskan ecosystems, died January 7, 2014. He resided in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Chuck grew up in Hinsdale, Illinois, and attended Lake Forest Academy. He earned a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Duke University and held academic positions at Ohio State University, North Carolina State University and the Center for Northern Studies. Chuck subsequently became a research ecologist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover. In 1973 Chuck, with other scientists, conducted biological surveys of proposed Alaskan national parks and preserves that eventually were established by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Through the years Chuck developed many field studies of ecosystem response to human-caused disturbance. From 1994 to 2009 he participated in several projects evaluating observed and proposed ecosystem effects of climate change in interior, western and arctic Alaska. Chuck was also part of the project that identified dramatic evidence of substantial shrub expansion on the North Slope of Alaska during the last 50 years. “Chuck was a wonderful, fun-loving guy who loved to poke fun at pretensions and clichés,” said Harry Zlokower ’63, his roommate for two years. An avid outdoorsman, Chuck and his wife, Marilyn, who survives him, owned a working farm for many years in Vermont from which he commuted to the CRREL.