Everyone in Omena knew Chris, with his trademark flowing white beard, his distinctive—and formal—way of speaking, and his almost-eidetic memory. Chris could tell you more about yourself and your family history than you might have remembered yourself.

He was a distinctive presence in Omena, whether he was purchasing a money order at the post office, treating diseased trees with fellow Omena Woods Association members, or railing against the evils of real estate development.

The legendary story about Chris and a youthful partner in crime attempting to row to Gull Island in a small boat in a large storm, necessitating rescue by the Coast Guard, was mentioned just last month in the obituary of that accomplice, Ricky Keye.

Chris’s early years crisscrossed the country. Born to Pat Taylor Verdery and Jonathan Verdery in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 20, 1946, Chris lived in California, Kansas, and Mississippi, before finally landing in Michigan. He went to the University of Kansas, where his grandfather was a professor.

His education was interrupted in 1968, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a medic, serving in Vietnam with the Big Red 1 First Infantry. His stint in Vietnam lasted only 34 days, as he sustained injuries while helping a wounded compatriot. Chris earned a Purple Heart, and the man he tended credited Chris with saving his life.

Over the years, in a quest to extend his practical and first-hand education, Chris traveled extensively, visiting 49 American states and all but two Canadian provinces. He completed his bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of California at Riverside. He would identify himself as a “philosopher” for the rest of his life.

For Chris, ultimately, all roads would lead back to Omena, Michigan. His grandmother, Hazel Clark Taylor, visited Omena for the first time in 1916, and then was a regular summer resident at her 1914-vintage cottage on Ingalls Bay. She became a year-round resident after her retirement in 1963. As a child, Chris would spend summers at Hazel’s with his mother (Hazel’s daughter Pat Taylor Verdery Kulick) and extended family. As time went on, Chris spent more and more time “Up North,” settling into a routine with his mother of spending half the year in Omena, and the other half in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. After Pat’s death, Chris became a permanent Omena resident himself.

Something of an “absent-minded professor,” Chris was singularly erudite, with an encyclopedic knowledge of an array of subjects, including opera and literature. His operatic music collection numbered over 1,000 albums and CDs, and one of his favorite activities was traveling with fellow Omena opera lovers to attend the Metropolitan Opera’s remote live performances, held at the State Theatre in Traverse City.

His taste in literature veered into the intellectually demanding. He said that November 20, 1946-July 31, 2026 James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake was his favorite book, and his favorite novelist was Fyodor Dostoevsky. Several years ago, Omena legend Annette Deibel hosted a literary “salon” at her home, where Chris held forth on Joyce’s Ulysses. After almost 2 hours, no more than 5 pages had been covered.

Perhaps the greatest loves of Chris’s life were trees. He said he could identify every native tree species in the U.S., and his friends in the Omena Woods Association, of which he was a member and board member, would certainly agree. Famous for giving “tree tours” in the area, Chris would tell you everything you could possibly want to know (and maybe a few things you didn’t) about all the trees in the area. If you happened upon a sapling or rare flowering plant in the woods that had been protectively caged against nibbling deer, you could be sure it was Chris’s handiwork.

As much as Chris was a true Friend of the Woods, he was also an enemy of development. He put that instinct to work in his founding membership and service on the management committee of the Cherry Basket Neighbors association, which came together to buy and protect a tract of thirty-five acres of orchard land in Omena. He was also a founding board member of the Omena Village Preservation Association, dedicated to protecting the qualities of bustling metropolitan Omena.

In his later life, Chris took on the role of steadfast and faithful caregiver, first to his mother Pat, and then to his brother David, until their deaths, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. At David’s funeral, a community member extolled Chris for embodying the song lyric, “He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother.”

Chris is preceded in death by his father, Jonathan Verdery; his mother, Pat Taylor Kulick; his brother, David B. Kulick. He is survived by his brother William Kulick, of Ocean Springs, MS, and his nephew Henry Kulick, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Chris’s family would like to thank the staff at the Veterans Administration hospital in Ann Arbor for their exceptional and compassionate care for Chris in his final months. Special thanks go to Cathy and Scott Heiser, who personify what it means to be a true neighbor, for the constant kindness and attention they showed to Chris through the last few years. In addition, lifelong friend Rink Smith was an invaluable help to Chris, cheerfully helping with all manner of caregiving tasks. The family asks that any memorials be directed to the Chris Verdery Hemlock Preservation Fund of the Omena Woods Association, P.O. Box 55, Omena, MI, 49674.

On August 4th, a young friend, George Walker, posted the following on “X,”after learning of Chris’s death. Even though Chris never came anywhere near social media of any sort, he would have loved it: “Chris Verdery was the arboreal steward of the Leelanau Peninsula.

If you were a blight: Chris fought you.

If you were notably tall or far north (and a tree): Chris knew you. He loved you.

If you tried to convert woods to condos: Chris beat you.

Chris will be dearly missed.”