Dr. Eugene “Gene” Wengert, a renowned wood expert, passed away on March 17, 2025, at the age of 82.
For more than 35 years, Wengert trained people in the science and efficient use of wood and wood products. He was the president of the Wood Doctor’s Rx LLC at WOODWEB in Bishop, Georgia, and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He authored eight practical books and published more than 500 articles relating to the wood products industry.
As a former professor and extension specialist at Virginia Tech, and researcher at the USDA Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, Wengert taught more than 30 practical wood processing classes and seminars each year for the wood products industry, including sawing, edging, grading, drying, machining, and gluing.
According to Wengert’s obituary, his career in wood products began in 1961 loading and unloading a solar-heated lumber dryer at the U.S. Forest Products Lab in Madison. He continued working at the Lab on the weathering and drying of wood through 1976. While there, he co-authored the USDA Handbook Drying Eastern Hardwood Lumber. He also was assigned for two years at the Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment Station in Ft. Collins, Colorado. This experience, working directly with the wood industry, culminated in his move to take a faculty position as a wood products extension specialist at Virginia Tech, where he worked for 16 years. He developed the so-called “Virginia Tech Solar Heated Lumber Dryer” which has been built around the world. While there, he began his monthly column “Ask the Wood Doctor” in Furniture Design and Manufacturing magazine which continued monthly for more than 46 years.
Wengert trained more than 5,000 sawmill and wood drying employees during the course of his career. In the manufacturing industry, he developed and instituted many quality procedures in wood processing that are used today. He worked with a multitude of wood products manufacturers, from lumber to drumsticks, from cabinets to furniture, from flooring to railroad ties. He was inducted into the Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association’s Hall of Fame due to his work with sports floors.
In 2023, Wengert hosted a session titled “Stump the Wood Doctor” at the NWFA Wood Flooring Expo. Attendees were able to bring their most difficult wood questions to one of the industry’s leading experts. Click here to listen to Brett Miller’s conversation with Wengert on the NWFA Wood Talk podcast where they previewed the symposium event. He also was interviewed for this article in Hardwood Floors magazine, in which he shared more about his incredible career.
Services will be held on April 28, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. at Oconee Presbyterian Church, 2601 Hog Mountain Rd. in Watkinsville, Georgia. Donations in his memory may be made to the Athens Area Habitat for Humanity at athenshabitat.com. View his obituary and send condolences to the family here.
I’m seeing this late, for the first time just now. What a staggering loss. Gene was a mentor to me late in his career, after he moved to Georgia, as I’m now pretty much retired in my own career as an inspector and consultant. He was a kind-hearted man, apt to teach, willing to listen, and as humble as they come — which are all rare qualities in short supply these days. His academic and practical knowledge and experience in wood science had absolutely no equal in this industry. None. An absolute giant of a man. It was a privilege to sit on the front row anywhere he presented. We’re all the better for being anywhere he went. I’ll miss him.