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Farewell to two prominent personalities Aug 20, 2015 12:00 AM A A Southern Oregon lost two public figures recently. One was a tireless advocate for the region's environment and natural beauty; the other was a politician best remembered from his sometimes offbeat personality. Wendell Wood, 65, spent more than three decades working for Oregon Wild, formerly the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a variety of capacities. Wood was a high school biology teacher until he decided to make the environmental movement his life's work. After joining the NRDC's precursor, the Oregon Wilderness Coalition, in 1981, he was instrumental in passing the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984, and spent years working to protect old-growth forests and the wildlife they harbor. When harvests of Pacific yew trees for the cancer-fighting substance Taxol in their bark threatened to wipe out the species, Wood filed a lawsuit that forced pharmaceutical companies to synthesize the drug. He was devoted to Southern Oregon in particular, and was instrumental in securing protection under the Endangered Species Act for the Western snowy plover, the Klamath short-nosed sucker and the Lost River sucker, among others. Wood died doing what he loved: hiking in the California redwoods with his wife and a friend, he collapsed and could not be revived. He left a legacy that will last for years to come. Ric Holt, a Jackson County commissioner for three terms from 1990 to 2002, left a mark of his own, more as a result of his personality than of his political accomplishments. A gregarious businessman with a background in the oil industry, Holt championed conservative, business-oriented policies and worked to boost economic development efforts. He was perhaps best known as a tireless advocate for freight and passenger trains, working to make sure the old rail line linking the Rogue Valley with California stayed on transportation planners' radar. Holt wanted most of all to see passenger trains revived as a tourism draw, a dream he never saw realized. He narrowly lost his bid for a fourth term, but continued to dabble in politics until diabetes pushed him to the sideline and eventually took his life. Holt was a character. You might not always agree with him — and we frequently didn't — but it was hard not to get a grin on your face when you saw him coming.