Obituary
In the care of Solemn OaksTrevor Lampinen, 31, of Newaygo, died Saturday, September 26, 2026, in an accident while working in Croton Township, doing the work he loved on a clear morning at the very start of the season he loved best.
Trevor was born March 2, 1995, in Newaygo, to Karl and Beth Lampinen, the middle of three, and he was in trees before he was allowed to be. His mother has a photograph of him at six, forty feet up the silver maple behind the house, waving. She has never liked telling that story and she tells it constantly.
He apprenticed at eighteen and started Lampinen Tree at twenty-six with one truck, a chipper bought at auction, and a reputation that traveled faster than his advertising. He took the removals other crews turned down — the ones leaning on a roof, the ones over power lines, the widow-maker at the edge of the churchyard that three companies had looked at and declined. He was meticulous about it. He was famous for being meticulous about it.
Away from the rope he was a fisherman, a very poor euchre player who kept getting invited anyway, and the first person to show up with a saw after a windstorm — for free, all day, until the road was clear. After the ice storm two winters ago he worked eleven days straight and refused payment from anyone over seventy.
He was engaged to Sierra Vandenberg. They had set a date in June. The family will gather Wednesday afternoon and asks you to come as you would to the woods.
He is survived by his fiancée, Sierra Vandenberg; his parents, Karl and Beth Lampinen of Newaygo; his brother, Cole Lampinen of Newaygo; his sister, Anja Lampinen of Marquette; his grandmother, Sylvia Lampinen of Newaygo; and his crew, who were his second family.
He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Eino Lampinen.