Gary James Carmichael

Gary James Carmichael died on April 3, 2026 at his home on Maui where he had lived with his wife, Melissa Ring, for the past 10 years. He had been in declining cardiac health, knew the end was coming, and was at peace. Gary was an artist, scientist, outdoorsman, story teller, handyman, wonderful friend, devoted partner, and so much more.

Gary was born in Hastings, Nebraska on July 28, 1947 to Robert and Elsie (Nuss) Carmichael. His father’s family was Irish and his mother’s were “Germans from Russia”, farmers that immigrated to the prairies in the 1870s. He spent his formative years in Norfolk. He was heartbroken to move to Springfield NE beginning his sophomore year.

Gary’s parents gave him a suitcase for graduation from Platteview High School in 1965, and he reunited with Norfolk friends at the University of Nebraska. He remained a committed Huskers football fan throughout his life. There were many distractions that kept him away from classes and studying. The draft board knew that he failed his first semester before he was officially notified. He did not want to risk Viet Nam so he powered through to get back in and graduated (barely) in 1970. He attributed his later academic success to gaining a bit of “maturity” but he never lost his playful spirit.

At a crossroads, Gary married and moved St. Louis. After a number of short term positions, he was employed by the Southern Illinois University Dental School as an animal caretaker. There he met the Chair of the St. Louis University Biology Department who encouraged him to apply. Despite his undergraduate record, with the Chair’s support, he was accepted and graduated with a MS(R) in Biology.

With home life deteriorating, Gary spent most of the next year in Guatemala and Belize where he met up with ex-pats and lived as a vagabond: Helping to build a tropical lodge near Tikal; Making wood carvings and rubbings; and Joining a team to capture the photographs of the Quetzal bird in the mountainous rain forests. Until he ran out of money and returned to St. Louis. He was considering a move back to Central America, newly divorced, when he met Melissa, a Psychology graduate student at SLU. Their lives were forever intertwined and he recommitted to education.

Gary completed his PhD in Vertebrate Biology at Memphis State University. While there, his mastery of Spanish led to joining a research team from Virginia Tech on two fish sampling trips to Mexico, the source of many stories of their adventures. He conducted his doctoral research at the San Marcos (Texas) Fish Hatchery and Technology Center and spent the next seven years there as a Fisheries Management Biologist followed by a brief stint at the Pinetop Fisheries Assistance Office and living on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona.

Next, Gary developed the research program as the initial Research Leader at the new USDA Catfish Genetics Research Unit in Mississippi but was enticed to return to USFWS. When he was approached, the Mora (New Mexico) National Fish Hatchery & Technology Center was a controversial proposal that needed a project leader to overcome programmatic resistance and sell the idea while also designing, building and operating it. It was a difficult journey with stops and starts but became his crowning achievement. The facility was state of the art. The water reuse design was such that Gary received a national award for “Efficient Use of Water in the Federal Sector” from the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, the Mora project remained unpopular with in the USFWS and dealing with upper management led to his medical retirement.

Throughout his career, Gary specialized in physiology and genetics in sport fish, farmed catfish and most extensively with endangered species. He collaborated with fellow scientists in research and other scholarly endeavors and had over 50 publications in prestigious professional journals and presentations at invited conferences. He was sought out by colleagues for his knowledge, integrity, writing skills and friendship. Areas of study included physiological stress of fish during handling, transportation, and following stocking; Genetic studies of hybridization among wild populations of largemouth bass, introgression of endangered Apache trout and Gila trout with introduced rainbow trout, genetic studies of endangered Colorado pike minnow and population surveys of razorback sucker in the Colorado River as well as systems of hatchery management. Gary provided research opportunities to graduate students and served on the graduate committees for both Masters and PhD students. He was a lifetime member of the American Fisheries Society.

Melissa had happily joined him as they traveled to each new state, finding meaningful employment and advancing her career, but after Gary’s retirement from the Service in 2002, “the moves were hers”. Next stop was Doe Run, MO where Gary became a gentleman farmer and with friends developed Buck Mountain Vineyard and Winery. Then to Alaska when Melissa had a job opportunity and finally to Maui.

Gary is survived by his wife of 42 years, his brother Bill (Jenny) and niece Tracy Whitaker (Emmett), Melissa’s family and the close friends he made throughout his life. He was cremated and will be buried privately alongside generations of his in-laws at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.