William Edward Jackson III (born February 13, 1945) served with

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

in its early years (1975–77), as crew member on the first anti-

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

expedition, and as cofounder of Greenpeace San Francisco (the first GP chapter after Vancouver, BC). A pioneer synthesizer player (

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Buchla Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments (BEMI) was a manufacturer of synthesizers and unique MIDI controllers. The origins of the company could be found in Buchla & Associates, created in 1963 by synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla of Berkeley, Californi ...

, Moog), Jackson was aboard the ''Greenpeace V'' as part of the media campaign to demonstrate whale intelligence, and to disrupt Russian whaling. Jackson played a large modular synthesizer that had been brought onboard, broadcast through underwater speakers, with the intention of communicating with whales through synthesized whale song. He was one of six persons out of a rotating pool of 35 to remain aboard throughout the expedition. Bob Hunter, cofounder and first president of Greenpeace, credits Jackson with saving him from drowning at

Triangle Island Triangle Island is a small island, approximately in area,Anne Vallee Triangle Island Ecological Reserve Purpose Statement Ministry of Environmen/ref> located off the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is situated ap ...

. Following on the success of that voyage, Jackson opened the San Francisco office of Greenpeace. With the assistance of ''Fund for Animals'' (Cleveland Amory, Virginia Handley), and eco-filmmaker Stan Minasian, and commercial pilot Al Johnson. Jackson launched a grassroots media campaign, struggling from a South-of-Market condemned hotel to gain volunteers and donations, in preparation for the first anti-sealing expedition, and the follow-up whale expedition of 1976. (Three years after he left, the chapter was embroiled in a lawsuit with Vancouver over a million dollars and rights; the outcome being the formation of today’s Greenpeace International). These accounts and others are referenced in Robert Hunter's book, ''Rex Weyler’s Greenpeace'' (Rodale 2004), the Hunter-Weyler collaboration ''To Save A Whale ''(Chronicle Books 1978), and ''The Greenpeace Story'' (Dorling Kindersley 1989). Prefacing his Greenpeace years, in 1970 as a multimedia artist he won a scholarship to California Institute of the Arts, but then lost it when he offended his mentor Allen Kaprow. He moved on to

Serge Tcherepnin Serge Alexandrovich Tcherepnin (russian: Серге́й Александрович Черепнин; born 2 February 1941) is a Russian-American composer and electronic-instrument builder of Russian-Chinese parentage. Tcherepnin is noted for creati ...

's CalArts synthesizer workshop, and co-founded electronic music groups Cellar M with Naut Humon, and 'TO' with Z'EV. Later he performed with Ethership (Willard Van De Bogart, Lemon DeGeorge). Notably, he played synthesizer "whale music" with saxist Paul Winter aboard the GP-5, and at the "Save The Seas International Music Benefit", International Trade Center, Tokyo 1977, with Z'EV. In the 1980s Jackson became interviewer/program producer for Miss Wire Waist of

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's ''Sounds of Jamaica'' (L.A.); and published ''Jah Guide'' reggae culture magazine. He recorded, published and broadcast speeches on

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...

, Michael Manley, and Bishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

; and interviews with Steel Pulse, Burning Spear,

Big Youth Manley Augustus Buchanan (born 19 April 1949, Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica),Thompson, Dave (2002) "Reggae & Caribbean Music", Backbeat Books, better known as Big Youth (sometimes called Jah Youth), is a Jamaican deejay, mostly known for his ...

, Mutabaruka, Ras Michael and

Peter Tosh Winston Hubert McIntosh, OM (19 October 1944 – 11 September 1987), professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963� ...

. Meanwhile, he managed a 25-year career as a maritime seaman, union captain, and then fatherhood. In 2003 he authored the reggae novel ''Flight From Babylon ''(Infinity). His second novel and Greenpeace memoirs are forthcoming.

Bibliography

* '' Flight From Babylon: The Legend of Draxie Dread'' (2004) * '' Once Upon A Greenpeace'' (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Will E. Living people People associated with Greenpeace 1945 births