Tom Brown Jr., who was considered the country’s foremost authority on wilderness survival, and who taught thousands of people how to track deer, fletch arrows, forage for food and generally thrive in the great outdoors, died this month. He was 74.

Tom Brown Jr., who was considered the country’s foremost authority on wilderness survival, and who taught thousands of people how to track deer, fletch arrows, forage for food and generally thrive in the great outdoors, died on Aug. 16 in Neptune, N.J. He was 74.

His son Coty confirmed the death, in a hospital. He said his father had recently been in failing health.

Though Mr. Brown’s trim, sturdy build and neatly coifed mustache were more reminiscent of the media magnate Ted Turner than John Rambo, he was in every way the quintessential outdoorsman.

His preferred wilderness was the Pine Barrens, a vast, unpeopled expanse of sandy forest that stretches across the middle of New Jersey. He would disappear into the woods for weeks at a time, often with nothing but the clothes on his back, and emerge ruddy in health and even a few pounds heavier.

“If you have clothes or a knife, then you aren’t really surviving,” he told The Maine Times in 1998.