Edgar Arthur Wayburn (September 17, 1906 – March 5, 2010) was an American environmentalist who was elected president of the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

five times in the 1960s. He has been described as one of the least-known and yet most successful defenders of America's natural heritage. He is considered instrumental to achievements such as the creation of the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United ...

, the creation and later expansion of

Redwood National Park The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one national park and three state parks, cooperatively managed, located in the United States along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park (established 1968 ...

and

Point Reyes National Seashore Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as an important nature preserve. Some existing agricult ...

, and the expansion of

Mount Tamalpais State Park Mount Tamalpais State Park is a California state park, located in Marin County, California. The primary feature of the park is the Mount Tamalpais. The park contains mostly redwood and oak forests. The mountain itself covers around . There are a ...

Biography

He was born on September 17, 1906 in Macon, Georgia. He graduated from

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

in 1926 and from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

in 1930. He moved to San Francisco in 1933 to practice medicine. He joined the Sierra Club in 1939 to participate in a burro trip. After four years in the military in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as a doctor with the Army Air Forces, he returned to San Francisco. He was elected to the executive committee of the local Sierra Club chapter, and formed its first conservation committee. In 1947 he married Peggy Elliott, and together they were involved in some of the key battles of their time to protect wild places so that future generations can explore and enjoy them. In particular, he played a central role in the establishment of Redwoods National Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, as well as in the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. In 1995, he was awarded the

Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism The Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism is a prize given to people who made exemplary contributions to humanity and the environment. The goal of the prize is to advance the cause of humanitarianism. The prize was established in 1986 by Al ...

and in 1999

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

awarded him the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...

. Upon presenting the 1999 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Wayburn, President Clinton said that he had "saved more of our wilderness than any other person alive." The

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

wrote an article commending the award, saying "The White House has made a well-informed choice in selecting Wayburn, 92, as a recipient next Wednesday of the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor." Wayburn published his memoir ''Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist'' in 2004. Wayburn was honored at a 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration as the recipient of the inaugural Howard C. Zahniser Lifetime Achievement Award, given to someone whose life of achievement in protecting wilderness most closely parallels those of the person principally responsible for the

Wilderness Act The Wilderness Act of 1964 () was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²) of federal land. The result of a lon ...

He died of natural causes on the evening of March 5, 2010 at the age of 103. At the time he was at his home in San Francisco with his family by his side. He was survived by four children: Cynthia Wayburn, Diana Wayburn, Laurie Wayburn, and William Wayburn.

Activism

Wayburn served five terms as the Sierra Club's elected President, and was named the Club's Honorary President in 1993. During a half-century of environmental achievements, Wayburn led and won campaigns to protect millions of acres of America's coasts, mountains, forests and tundra. Wayburn has left his mark in the following ways: * Establishing the nation's largest urban park, the

. Included in the park's 76,000 acre (310 km²) expanse are San Francisco's beaches,

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...

and the

Presidio A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...

* Protecting over 100 million acres (400,000 km²) of Alaskan wild lands with the

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. ANILCA provided varying degrees of special protection to over of land, including national parks, na ...

, which doubled the size of

Denali National Park Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is an American national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. The park and contiguous preserve e ...

, created 10 new National Parks, and doubled the size of America's National Park system * Creating

, and then doubling the park's size 10 years later; * Increasing the area of California's

from 870 to 6,300 acres (3.5 to 25 km²). Mount Tamalpais is now among the state's 10 most-visited state parks * Establishing the

* Establishing Wilderness areas throughout the American West

References

External links

Finding Aid to the Edgar Wayburn papers, 1923-2010 (bulk 1951-2007)

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wayburn, Edgar 1906 births 2010 deaths Sierra Club presidents American centenarians American conservationists Men centenarians Sierra Club awardees Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients University of Georgia alumni Harvard Medical School alumni