Sierra Club's David Brower Dies

S A N  F R A N C I S C O, Nov. 6 -- David Brower, a mountain-climbing activistwho helped shape the environmental movement for much of the 20thcentury, died of cancer at his Berkeley, Calif. home. He was 88.

Brower, who died Sunday, served as the Sierra Club’s firstexecutive director from 1952 through 1969, building it into one ofthe nation’s most powerful environmental groups.

He also helped found Friends of the Earth and the League ofConservation Voters.

“The world has lost a pioneer of modern environmentalism,”said Sierra Club president Robert Cox. “Like the Californiaredwoods he cherished, David towered above the environmentalmovement and inspired us to protect our planet.”

An avid mountain climber and skier, Brower served in the Army’s10th Mountain Division during World War II and had an outdooradventure career that took him around the globe.

Brower joined the Sierra Club in 1933 and helped turn it from asmall hiking group into an environmental organization withconsiderable influence in Washington and state capitals around thecountry. The Sierra Club has more than 600,000 members nationwide.

Legacy of an Environmental ChampionBrower led Sierra Club efforts to pass the Wilderness Act, blockconstruction of two hydroelectric dams in the Grand Canyon, andcreate Kings Canyon, North Cascades and Redwoods National Parks andPoint Reyes and Cape Cod National Seashores.

He persuaded skeptical board members to go ahead with expensivebut successful coffee-table books of Ansel Adams’ naturephotographs.

But he was forced out of his job as executive director in 1969by board members unhappy that he made major decisions withoutconsulting them.

He went on to found Friends of the Earth and the League ofConservation Voters, which have become respected environmentalgroups. He resigned from the board of Friends of the Earth after abattle for control in 1986. He also founded the Earth IslandInstitute.

“David Brower was the greatest environmentalist andconservationist of the 20th century. He was an indefatigablechampion of every worthwhile effort to protect the environment overthe last seven decades,” said Green Party presidential candidateRalph Nader.