Bio: Dorski, Tom (1957)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: Dorski, Heagle, Peterson  
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) October 17, 1957 
 

Tom Dorski (1957) 
 

Did you know that Tom Dorski, manager of the O & N Lumber company at Neillsville, has been a lover of the out-of-doors, enjoys fishing, golf, and hikes in the woods, wanted to be a federal ranger, and has spent his life working with trees, lumber and construction work? 
 

He was born in Stanley, February 16, 1916, and was graduated from Stanley High School in 1934.  His course included four years of manual training and draftsmanship.  He entered the Civilian Conservations Corps after high school, being inducted at Fort Sheridan. 
 

Assigned to a soil erosion project at Independence, Wis., he was transferred after four months to Long Lake, where he worked with the fish and game department.  The Long Lake camp was located north of Rhinelander, near the Michigan border, in an area almost entirely in its natural state.  Earlier, forest fires and woodsmen had left much of the area in a barren condition.  Mr. Dorski was in charge of a crew which surveyed streams and lakes, studied stream improvement and timber stands.  The C. C. C. program called for cleaning out the debris, putting in log abutments, and stocking creeks, lake and rivers with fish. 
 

While there he had a part in the building of recreational parks, planting pine and spruce. Twenty years later he returned to the area plantings and found large stands of these 20 feet high. 
 

While at Long Lake from 1934 to 1937, he saw a systematic timber cutting program in action which, each year, brought thousands of dollars of mature timber to market. 
 

When he concluded his C. C. C. service he worked as an engineer in the Stanley Furniture Factory for Roy Heagle.  At that time, Ruth Heagle (now Mrs. Heron Van Gorden) was secretary during the summer months in her father’s factory. 
 

In 1940, Mr. Dorski was married to Lorraine Peterson, and to this union four children were born: Tom, Jr., Nancy, Shirley and Esther.  Starting in 1942 he worked in the shipyards at Superior as a welder for three years, leaving that job to join the navy in 1945.  Inducted into the service at Great Lakes, Ill., he was transferred to the Naval station shipyards at Bremerton, Wash., where he was assigned to the commissary department.  
 

He was honorably discharged in 1946, and entered the employ of the O & N Lumber company at Stanley, where he remained until coming to Neillsville in 1955. 
 

Although his boyhood ambition to become a forest ranger was never realized, Mr. Dorski has worked with trees, lumber and construction. 
 

As a boy he liked to fish, hunt, and hike in the woods. Today he still enjoys fishing, and likes to attend football and baseball games. 
 

Affiliated with the Masonic order at Superior, Stanley and Neillsville, the American Legion of Stanley and Neillsville, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Stanley, he has been active in helping to bring to Neillsville the newly organized Calvary Lutheran Church.