Gene Wengert

Gene Wengert, known for decades as The Wood Doctor who answered questions from wood professionals for the popular Wood Doctor column in Furniture Design & Manufacturing Components (FDMC) magazine, died March 17 from metastatic pancreatic cancer. He was 82. Wengert began his career in wood products in 1961. …He co-authored the USDA Handbook Drying Eastern Hardwood Lumber, a resource that continues to be used through the industry. …As a former professor and extension specialist at Virginia Tech, and researcher at the USDA Forest Products Lab, Wengert taught more than 30 practical wood processing classes. Wengert retired from the extension in 1998 and began his consulting company “The Wood Doctor’s Rx LLC.” He traveled extensively both abroad and domestically. Overall, he wrote eight books on wood processing, wrote hundreds of practical articles for the industry, and trained over 5,000 sawmill and wood drying employees. Wengert was born August 31, 1942, in Knoxville, Tennessee.