Meet People Like You
Margo Earley
A lifelong member, volunteer and generous donor to The Wilderness Society, Margo Earley made an indelible impact on the conservation community. Though she passed away in 2021, her legacy continues to inspire us today.
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Cindy Westerman
For Wilderness Society member Cindy Westerman, science has been an integral part of her life. “I majored in astronomy at Wellesley and received a master’s in meteorology from Cornell,” Cindy shared. “I’ve always loved science and cared about our planet and the environment.”
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Chela Kunasz
Chela Kunasz learned to appreciate America’s wild places at a young age. The daughter of a Russian immigrant father and an American mother from Silver City, New Mexico, her parents used what little money they had to take their family to places such as Lake Tahoe and Mount Lassen.
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Alice and Cal Elshoff
Oregon residents Alice and Cal Elshoff spent most of their careers teaching students about the wonders of science and nature. In retirement, they volunteer with and support causes dedicated to preserving wildlife and wildlands, including The Wilderness Society.
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Harry Dodson
When Wilderness Society member Harry Dodson decided to pursue a career in landscape architecture, it was almost like a spiritual calling. “Right after college I was on a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and I was so struck by the beauty and peacefulness of the landscape,” Harry recalled.
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Dr. Richard Latterell
For Dr. Richard Latterell conservation of wilderness has long been an enduring aspiration. For some seventy-five years, from youth through college, career and retirement, enjoyment and preservation of the natural world has been his major preoccupation.
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Jim Burch
When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to play the role of Henry David Thoreau in a local production of 'The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail'. During my research for the part, I purchased the book 'In Wildness is the Preservation of the World', with quotations from Henry David Thoreau and photographs by Eliot Porter. That book, and the experience of attempting to understand and portray Henry David Thoreau, helped bring my life into focus.
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James Morris
Some days the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada range were visible while growing up in the San Joaquin Valley of California. My parents said I went "camping" in my first year. A neighbor introduced me to the wonders of backpacking on a September trip into the high Sierras. And later, there were the treks in the western United States and South America.
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Dr. Roy Holub
For many years, I enjoyed spending time at my grandparents' summer home along the Fox River in Illinois. This is where I first realized how important nature and natural environments were to me. Over time, I also observed the deterioration of river quality and the concurrent change in aquatic life. These experiences set the stage for a career with a major focus on protecting and improving the quality of our water resources and for my support of conservation organizations.
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Edward Hoagland
"I just couldn't wait to get off that school bus and into the woods," author Edward Hoagland recalls of his 1940's childhood in Connecticut. A stutter made it difficult for him to talk to anyone aside from close friends, "but I was able to talk to animals. There was no pressure." His love of them led him to take a summer job with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus after his freshman year at Harvard. "I was in the menagerie, working first with creatures like giraffes and rhinos, but I aspired to take care of the lions and tigers," he says. "Once I proved myself, they let me do it, that summer and the next." Hoagland spent another summer hitchhiking across the country, fighting forest fires, and tending to the MGM lions at the World Jungle Compound in Ventura, California.
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Martin Dodge
For Martin Dodge, nature has always been a haven. Growing up in Connecticut, Dodge said, "I gravitated to the woods as often as I could. There was steep gorge nearby with a perennial stream and big trees. I would build forts and treehouses and just escape into the wilderness." Dodge's love of nature continued when he attended Colby College in Maine, where he founded and coached the school's woodsmen team as he majored in chemistry. "Had it not been for the joy and outlet that I had with the woodsmen team I doubt I could have overcome the academic challenges of my chemistry major," he remarked.
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