David Ross Brower was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, Friends of the Earth, Earth Island Institute, North Cascades Conservation Council, and Fate of the Earth Conferences.
23 Facts About David Brower
2.
David Brower was married to Anne Hus Brower whom he met when they were both editors at the University of California Press in Berkeley.
3.
Kenneth Brower, David Brower's son, authored a number of books, most notably The Starship and the Canoe about Freeman Dyson and his son George Dyson.
4.
In 1933, David Brower spent seven weeks in the High Sierra with George Rockwood.
5.
David Brower made the first ascent of seventy routes in Yosemite and elsewhere in the western United States.
6.
In 1942, David Brower edited and contributed to the Manual of Ski Mountaineering, published by the University of California Press and Cambridge University Press for use in training Allied mountain combat troops during World War II.
7.
David Brower served as a major in the Army Reserve for many years after the war ended.
8.
David Brower managed the Sierra Club annual High Trips from 1947 to 1954.
9.
David Brower was named the first executive director of the Sierra Club in 1952, and joined the fight against the Echo Park Dam in Utah's Dinosaur National Monument.
10.
David Brower began Sierra Club Books' Exhibit Format book series with This is the American Earth in 1960, followed by the highly successful In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, with color photographs by Eliot Porter in 1962.
11.
David Brower published two new titles a year in the series, but they began to lose money for the organization after 1964, though many claim they were the primary cause of the Club's extraordinary growth and rise to national prominence.
12.
In 1964, David Brower organized a dory river expedition led by Martin Litton with Philip Hyde and author Francois Leydet.
13.
In 1968, David Brower's supporters won a majority, but in 1969, anti-David Brower candidates won all five open positions.
14.
David Brower was charged with financial recklessness and insubordination by two of his former close friends, photographer Ansel Adams and board president Richard Leonard.
15.
David Brower's resignation was accepted by a board vote of ten to five.
16.
David Brower founded Friends of the Earth in 1969, soon after resigning as executive director of the Sierra Club.
17.
David Brower so enjoyed being called the Archdruid that he later used the term in his e-mail address.
18.
FOE set up its headquarters in San Francisco, and opened an office in Washington, DC David Brower soon spun off two new organizations from the FOE Washington staff: the League of Conservation Voters in 1970, founded by Marion Edey, and the Environmental Policy Center in 1971.
19.
David Brower started a publications program at FOE, which had initial success with The Environmental Handbook in the wake of Earth Day, but then began to lose money.
20.
David Brower retired as executive director of FOE on its tenth anniversary in 1979, but continued as chairman of its board of directors.
21.
David Brower was removed from the board for insubordination, but was reinstated when he threatened a lawsuit.
22.
The day before he died, David Brower cast his absentee ballot for Nader.
23.
David Brower died at his home in Berkeley, California, on November 5,2000.