RIP Kevin von Finger

To say that El Paso's conservation and environmental community has lost one of its usual suspects would be a colossal understatement. Not just environmentalists but all El Pasoans lost a giant. The word went out by email and Facebook yesterday that Kevin von Finger had died. A neighbor and 911 respondents found Kevin dead in his home where he had lived alone. He was near one of his legendary and much-admired fish tanks.

His bio on the Frontera Land Alliance web site is short and sweet:

"Kevin von Finger is an ecologist and environmental consultant. He currently serves on the City of El Paso's Open Space Advisory Board, the El Paso County Eco-Tourism Committee, the Southwest Environmental Center Board of Directors, the Paso del Norte Watershed Concil Executive Committee, the International Boundary and Water Commission Rio Grande Citizens Forum Board, and the Keystone Heritage Park Board of Directors, where he also serves as the Habitat Committee Chairman and is actively involved in riparian restoration of the Keystone wetlands."

All of the above is not to mention that he was also, of course, on the Board of Directors for the Frontera Land Alliance.

Kevin was an ecologist. He held degrees from Knox College in Illinois and the University of Texas at El Paso. In 2003 he had retired as the Senior Ecologist for the Directorate of Environment at Fort Bliss after nearly 28 years of service. He became self-employed as an environmental consultant. He also authored a number of scientific papers. 

Wherever I went in the El Paso conservation community, there was Kevin. He frequently asked me how I find time to do all that I do. The fact of the matter is that few match or matched Kevin's activism. Kevin was not a complainer, not an arm-chair environmentalist. Kevin was a roll of your sleeves and solve problems scientist. He had a burly, manly kind of guy persona but a real softness when it came to just being a friend. He could talk business. He could also be personal and caring. Many who are active, take charge, get things done kind of people often miss the people in their worlds. Not Kevin. You mattered to him. 

I missed his last annual party. An arduous hike had made me home bound and couch bound that late afternoon. I figured that I wouldn't be missed. I was wrong. The next time Kevin saw me at an Open Space meeting, he said to me: "You missed a good one." 

I'm missing a great one now.