Wakelin McNeel was a 4-H club and conservation leader on the staff of the University of Wisconsin Extension Service. Born in Wisconsin Dells, February 4, 1884, he first became a school teacher in Tomah and Fort Atkinson. In 1922, he was appointed an assistant state 4-H club leader and moved to Madison. He advanced to state club leader in 1944.
In these positions his interest in forestry led him to promote the club's Junior Forest Ranger program and a system of school forests planted or cared for by students on lands owned by their school districts. He obtained a 318-acre tract called Upham Woods near Wisconsin Dells from the University of Wisconsin for use as a school forest. This became a youth camp for 4-H club members.
McNeel also conducted an educational radio program for 20 years on station WHA. Entitled Afield with Ranger Mac, the program was aimed at the state's school children and was concerned with a variety of nature and conservation topics. It received the 1942 George Foster Peabody award as the outstanding educational program in the country.
Other awards honoring McNeel's work were a 1950 American Forestry Association award for outstanding service to conservation and a 1953 award of merit from the National Association for Conservation Education and Publicity.
McNeel retired as state 4-H club leader in 1951. He died in July, 1958, at age 74, leaving as survivors his wife Dora and three children, Mrs. Harold Stoneman, Dr. Laird McNeel, and Wakelin McNeel, Jr.
