Gareth C. Moon was born in 1923 and raised in eastern South Dakota. He was a veteran of World War II, serving with the United States Marines in the South Pacific. Prior to the war, he worked on a logging crew in Idaho forests. He graduated from The University of Montana School of Forestry in 1949. During this time, he worked for the United States Forest Service on the Lolo National Forest where he cruised timber and fought forest fires. He was appointed Montana State Forester in 1954 and served in that post for the next twenty-six years. He was State Land Commissioner from 1980 until 1982, when he retired for health reasons. Moon died in 2000.
From the guide to the Gareth C. Moon Papers, 1941-1993, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
