The first trip Mike Meunier and Mary Goldman took together was 1,000 miles north of the Twin Cities at Cranberry Portage in Manitoba, where they paddled a canoe from island to island to inlet. They saw beautiful sunsets from a small island with just enough room for their tent and canoe.

This was the first of many such trips for the couple, who made the outdoors the center of their lives. That was all cut short, however, when Mike died from cancer in 1997, at age 47.

But Mike’s passion for the outdoors will live on forever thanks to a gift he left in his will to a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting natural areas. "His gift was a natural progression to preserve what we liked," says Mary, who was Mike’s partner for nearly 20 years.

Although Mike made his living with computers, he was a conservationist at heart, trading his car for a bike when he could, recycling, and eating fruits and vegetables from the garden he and Mary shared. "He lived a very simple life," Mary says. "He didn’t go out, he wasn’t social. He preferred camping."

The couple’s favorite place in Minnesota was Montissippi County Park, just north of Monticello, a setting Mary remembers as peaceful and idyllic. The two spent many hours there fishing for smallmouth bass — although they weren’t always successful.

Another favorite spot was the Bighorn mountains in the western United States, where Mike and Mary went on some great backpacking trips, Mary recalls. "We were most at peace with one another when we were walking or fishing," she says.

It was in these two places where Mary left Mike’s ashes, so that he will continue to be connected with the land he loved so much. Mary visits the Monticello site each year to honor the anniversary of Mike’s death, and whenever she feels a need to be close to him.

When Mike died, Mary says their dreams died with him. They had planned on retiring in northern Iowa to run an organic hobby farm, selling the food to local restaurants. But with Mike’s charitable bequest, his dreams of preserving thriving eagle’s nests, blooming wildflowers and undisturbed prairies will come true.