As a long-time observer of the Michigan conservation scene, Van Coevering collected a wide range of materials to document the history of hunting, fishing, and wildlife management, the development of state parks and forests, political development of the Department of Conservation and Conservation Commission, concerns about pollution and pesticide poisoning, and other conservation and environmental matters in Michigan. This collection is made up of his writings and background materials on all these topics.
The collection contains only a part of Van Coevering's papers. His "personal" papers were destroyed by his widow after his death. Included here are "historical" papers collected in the course of his work as an outdoor writer. The papers include press releases, clippings, memoranda, reports, and other documents collected by Van Coevering as well as correspondence. Van Coevering's outgoing correspondence is generally of the information-seeking type, and provides little insight into his ideas.
The collection is divided into five major series: Publications, Reference file, School of Natural Resources file, Michigan conservation history file, and Photographs. There is also a small folder of obituaries and other personal information in Box 1. In 1996, the library received an addition to the collection. This 1996 accession from Frank Angelo includes the manuscript of "A Brief History of Conservation in Michigan," and the accompanying research as well as background research for a proposed history of prominent Michigan conservationists.
Jack Van Coevering worked for 35 years as an outdoor writer for the Detroit Free Press. During that time he became noted as an authority on Michigan hunting, fishing, conservation, and other outdoor topics. After his retirement, he taught at the University of Michigan.
John Adrian Van Coevering was born in Grand Haven, Michigan, in 1900. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1926, and went to work for the Grand Rapids Herald as an outdoor writer. In 1931 Van Coevering moved to Detroit as outdoor writer for the Detroit Free Press. (He was sometimes referred to as the newspaper's outdoor editor.)
Van Coevering worked for the Free Press until he retired in 1965. At the same time he also worked in other media. In 1933 he was editor of a periodical, the Michigan Sportsman. From 1949 to 1953 he hosted a Detroit television program devoted to hunting and fishing in Michigan.
Early in his career, Van Coevering wrote almost exclusively about hunting and fishing, but by the late 1940s he had extended his field of concern to include water pollution. The 1950s saw him writing about pesticides and other environmental concerns, and by the time of his retirement he was interested broadly in environmental problems and the role of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in combating them.
In the 1967/1968 school year, Van Coevering joined the staff of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources, first as a research assistant and later as an adjunct professor, teaching outdoor or environmental writing. He worked at the university until late 1974, when he retired and moved to Mesa, Arizona. Van Coevering died in Mesa on May 24, 1978.
