Global scientist and adventurer Peter R. Vogt-who has climbed volcanoes, traversed the Andes, trekked to Antarctica and served on submarines-turns his unbounded curiosity to trees of the Chesapeake Bay, especially the tulip poplar, the tallest tree in North America. When one majestic specimen topples in a storm, nearly crushing his waterfront home, Vogt masters the woodworking skills needed to carve chairs and other items - particularly a dugout canoe modeled on those from mid-Atlantic tidewaters centuries before. The vessel reignites Vogt's wanderlust, and he paddles the balky, 650--pound vessel at storied venues throughout the region, including Monticello, yielding descriptive and comical field notes for the book. Divine Gust of Wind focuses on the tulip poplar but also celebrates historic trees throughout America with the wisdom of poets and tree aficionados over centuries.
A marine geoscientist by career, Dr. Peter Vogt was educated at Caltech and the University of Wisconsin. Undergrad wanderlust led him to climb Mexico's high volcanoes, travel overland along the Andes, work for a mining company in the blistering Arizona desert, and get his first taste of oceanography on a Scripps Pacific expedition. As a new Wisconsin grad student, he first helped a professor in Antarctica (1962-3). Next year Vogt enlisted as research watch-stander on a seven-month Woods Hole expedition to the Indian Ocean, and collected thesis data on two icebreaker cruises (1965 and 1966-tailed or buzzed by the USSR)) to the European Arctic. Vogt's career as Navy civilian scientist spanned almost four decades-The Naval Oceanographic Office 1967-75 and 1975-2004 with the Naval Research Laboratory. Besides applied research, he participated in basic science research on many US vessels and some foreign ones (Norwegian, French, Soviet, and Russian). Most of the cruises investigated the bottom and sub-bottom of poorly known deep ocean venues-the North and South Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.Some memorable deployments were on the US nuclear submarine NR-1 (1999), two 10 hr dives (1998) in the Russian MIR submersibles made famous in the Titanic movie, and a stint as Co-Chief Scientist on the Glomar Challenger (1975).After moving to Calvert County, Maryland (1969) with his wife Randi and toddler son, Vogt focused his avocational interests on local natural history, especially the Calvert Cliffs, and the effort to preserve natural and farm land from suburban sprawl. In retirement he has continued his woodcraft hobby (locally found wood) and writing. He holds a honorary doctorate from the University of Bergen (Norway).
