The conservation community is remembering and celebrating one of its greatest advocates this week, following the death of Dr. Edgar Wayburn at the age of 103.Wayburn, a physician and five-term Sierra Club president, was well-known to his fellow Pacific Forest Trust supporters as one of our advisory board members, our 2004 Outside-the-Box award winner, and the father of our president and co-CEO, Laurie Wayburn.
In broader conservation circles throughout the country he was known as “the 20th century John Muir,” a quietly effective and determined advocate for safeguarding our beautiful open landscapes. "He has saved more of our wilderness than any other person alive," President Bill Clinton said in 1999 when he awarded Dr. Wayburn the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.Dr. Wayburn had central roles in protecting 104 million acres of Alaskan wilderness; establishing and enlarging Redwood National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore in California; and starting the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in and around San Francisco, wrote the The New York Times in its tribute.
His methods were the old-fashioned ones of writing letters, raising money, commenting on environmental studies and attending public hearings. He was widely respected for the authority and persistence he brought to lobbying public officials, always softly, with a courtly Georgia accent.With the help of the Sierra Club, local conservationists, and his own tireless lobbying of state legislators, [Wayburn] won approval of acquisitions that gradually but substantially expanded Mount Tamalpais State Park, from 870 acres in 1948 to 6,300 acres by 1972, wrote the San Francisco Chronicle in its front page story on Dr. Wayburn’s passing.Dr. Wayburn helped transform the Sierra Club from the 3,000-member outing and skiing club he joined in 1939 into a powerful force in environmentalism today with 730,000 members. He served five one-year terms as president of the club in the 1960s and for many years was honorary president.
“Legislators know that if Dr. Wayburn comes into your office, what might have been inconceivable at the beginning of the conversation is inevitable by the end of it,” Representative Nancy Pelosi, now the speaker of the House, told Sierra magazine in 1999. -- The New York Times

Other achievements included the Point Reyes National Seashore, the nation's first major metropolitan-area national park, and the Bay Area's environmental crown jewel, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which encompasses 200,000 acres and nearly 60 miles of shoreline from Point Reyes to the Peninsula….
"He didn't raise his voice, but he was extremely persuasive, and he didn't back down," said the Sierra Club's deputy executive director, Bruce Hamilton. - The San Francisco Chronicle
A host of major news outlets have written very moving tributes to Dr. Wayburn’s life and work. You can read more below.
Edgar Wayburn, a Leader in Saving the Wilderness, Dies at 103
The New York Times, March 9, 2010
Edgar Wayburn, 103, dies; No. 1 protector of U.S. wilderness
The Washington Post, March 9, 2010
Conservationist, Sierra Club leader Edgar Wayburn dies at 103
San Jose Mercury News, March 8, 2010
Conservationist Edgar Wayburn dies at 103
Associated Press, March 8, 2010
Edgar Wayburn dies at 103; longtime Sierra Club president helped double U.S. parkland
The Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2010
Five-term Sierra Club chief, Edgar Wayburn, dies
San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 2010
Sierra Club's Edgar Wayburn was a quiet hero
SF Chronicle Editorial, March 9, 2010
Persuasive Voice for Parkland
The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2010
Conservationist Edgar Wayburn, 103, Dies
Democracy Now! March 9, 2010







