Shannon Todd Swanson, 43, died at his home in Medicine Lake, Montana, on July 28, 2007, ending a three year journey with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Shannon was born November 26, 1963 in Fargo and grew up in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. After graduating from high school in Devil’s Lake he served four years in the U.S. Air Force, and then attended North Dakota State University. At NDSU he was in the McNair Scholars Program and graduated with a degree in Wildlife Biology in 1991. He attended graduate school at Idaho State University in Pocatello. After college, he worked several seasons as a marine fisheries observer for NOAA on fishing boats in Alaska’s Bering Sea. He returned to Devils Lake in 1993 to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1998 he transferred to Upham, North Dakota to serve as the interagency Fire Dispatcher for the state of North Dakota.

In 1999 he married Elizabeth Madden and they moved to Medicine Lake to work at the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Shannon was a prescribed fire specialist and wildland firefighter, as well as an accomplished biologist. He traveled throughout the country working on fires from Florida to Minnesota and Arizona to Idaho.

Shannon was a brilliant yet humble person. He was filled with compassion for others and a passion for life in general. He treasured the time spent together with family, usually working on “one project or another” and always with lots of laughter. He was active locally with the Medicine Lake Trap Club, Ducks Unlimited, and the Montana Native Plant Society. He lead an active life and his loves included bird-watching, hunting and fishing, gardening, woodworking, scuba diving, sailing, and traveling. He was equally active in intellectual pursuits, as an avid reader, a connoisseur of music, and a contemplative student of science and politics.

After being diagnosed with ALS in 2004, Shannon retired from the Fish and Wildlife Service and bought a large sailboat which he sailed from San Diego to Mexico with his wife, his brother, and his devoted dog Runa. He traveled, hunted, continued woodworking, and lived life to the fullest for a year and a half before the complications of ALS set in fully. He remained a loving and happy man to the end.