Michael D. Zentner
, Oregon
August 12, 2026
Michael David Zentner worked to keep the nuclear threat contained. He died on August 13, 2026, at 76.Michael grew up in a farming community outside McMinnville, Oregon. Late one night as a teenager, while driving a bean combine at two or three in the morning, he saw a shooting star streak across the sky and appear to strike the fields ahead of him. He never forgot it and returned to the memory often in later years. He grew up near Paul and Evelyn Trent, whose famous photographs of a strange object over their farm added to his early sense of wonder and curiosity.Michael had a natural charisma. He was prom king, fraternity president and a standout football player, playing in high school for legendary Oregon coach Dewey Sullivan before continuing the sport in college. But it was his curiosity that drove him to understand how things worked and what could…