A Chapel Hill native who worked at Yosemite National Park was killed early Saturday when gusty winds blew down a tree onto a tent cabin in the park's Curry Village, officials said.

Ryan Hiller, 27, was alone in the tent, said Scott Gediman, a spokesman for Yosemite. Hiller graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 2002 and attended Appalachian State University, his sister's fiancé, Morgan Seybert, said Sunday. Hiller wrestled for Chapel Hill, Seybert said.

"He would have turned 28 (Monday)," Seybert said. "His birthday present was there waiting for him." Hiller's family had told him in a phone call to go get the present because mail is not delivered to the area where he was, Seybert explained.

"He actually worked in the back woods," Seybert said, and the gift was a care package of goodies that Hiller would not normally be able to get in the rural area.

Curry Village is open to visitors only on weekends through March 17, according to the concession's posted schedule.

Hiller had last been in Chapel Hill about a year ago, Seybert said.

He worked as a seasonal ranger for the National Park Service and had recently begun working for the ski patrol at the park, though all ski operations were waiting for snow.

Gediman said Hiller was living in an employee housing community in the tent cabin area near Curry Village. The village, operated by DNC Parks and Resorts, is near the park's famous Half Dome area. Started in 1899, it has wall tents set up on platforms and equipped with framed wooden doors.

Yosemite was experiencing heavy winds Saturday from a storm that caused flooding in some parts of northern California.

'Wonderful ranger'

"He was a wonderful park ranger," and the Park Service was "tremendously upset" by his death, Gediman said.

The park service "just didn't have enough" full-time ranger positions to hire Hiller, Sey bert said.

He loved the park and wanted to stay in the area, so he found other jobs, his sister, Erica Hiller, said.

Curry Village is operated by a subsidiary of Delaware North Corp., which is the concessionaire for Yosemite. Delaware North is an entertainment and resort company that also operates Boston's TD Garden and is chaired by the owner of the Boston Bruins NHL hockey team.

The Fresno Bee and The Associated Press contributed

to this report