David Russell Jandt, 52, died at his home in Enterprise, Oregon, on Christmas Eve, 2011.

He was born Sept. 10, 1959, in Bozeman, Mont., to Russell L. Jandt and Helen A. (Smith) Jandt (deceased).

He graduated in 1977 from Bozeman Senior High School, where he played football and baseball.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1985 from the University of Montana, where he also pitched for and managed the U of M Baseball Club. While in college he worked summers firefighting on the Bitterroot Interagency Hotshots.

He arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska, on New Year’s Eve 1986 and liked it so well he spent the next 23 years there. He worked for the Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service, in wildland fire positions until his retirement in 2010, a few months after his diagnosis with brain cancer.

While at the Fire Service, he supervised the Midnight Sun Hotshot crew and later the Hotshot Program, retiring as a fire management officer for the Tanana Zone. He was also an incident commander of an Alaska Type 2 Fire Management Team.

He met his wife Randi (Anderson) in Fairbanks and they married Feb. 14, 1991. They lived an active outdoor life and enjoyed dog mushing, skiing, hiking, horseback riding, volleyball, winter camping and traveling abroad for backpack trips. He continued to play baseball in Fairbanks on the adult recreational league. His favorite holiday was winter solstice and he enjoyed setting up fireworks for his friends on this occasion.

He moved to Enterprise in 2010 with his wife and enjoyed spectacular views of the Wallowa Mountains and Zumwalt Prairie, riding, hiking, and the company of new friends and neighbors during his abbreviated retirement.

David is survived by his wife, Randi Jandt; father Russell Jandt; siblings and their spouses, Ramona and Terry Smalec, Lynda Jandt and George Livingston, and Dennis and Cindy Jandt; in-laws Pat and Jay Anderson, JoDee Anderson, Fernando Seco and Tony Anderson; nine nieces and nephews; and scores of friends in the firefighting community and around the world.

No service is planned at this time. Memorial contributions can be made to the Wallowa Valley Health Care Foundation for the new Residential Care Center in his memory (enclose a note indicating the memorial donation) to: WVHCF, P.O. Box 53, Enterprise, OR 97828.