Former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, who founded Earth Day 35 years ago to propagate his lifelong devotion to the environment, died at his home early on Sunday. Nelson, 89, whose congressional legacy included environmental measures such as the 1964 Wilderness Act and a stand against the Vietnam War, had been suffering from cardiovascular disease, according to his family.
Nelson, a Democrat, served three terms in the Senate before losing a 1980 election. After that, he joined the Wilderness Society as a counsellor, although his daughter, Tia Nelson, referred to his job as "resident pontificator."
"He had an extraordinary sense of humour and an extraordinary commitment to public service all his life," she said. "He was a great raconteur. Nobody could tell a story like he could. He had a life of commitment and public service, all done with a great sense of humor."
In giving Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, in 1995, President Bill Clinton said: "As the father of Earth Day, he is the grandfather of all that grew out of that event: the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act."
Nelson said her father continued to work at the Wilderness Society until March.
"When someone asked why he still went to work, he said, 'Because the job's not done,'" she said.
Nelson was born in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, and developed a love of the outdoors at an early age. After serving in the Army in Okinawa during World War II, he returned to Wisconsin, serving in the state senate and as governor, always with an emphasis on environmental issues.
Nelson managed to push the environment into the national spotlight with the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and it has become an annual event that has spread around the globe.
Writing for the Wilderness Society earlier this year, Nelson said his goal for the first Earth Day was to wed the public's environmental concerns with the energy of the student anti-war movement. He was surprised that it brought out 20 million Americans to take part in recycling programs, clean-up efforts and other environmental work.
"Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grass-roots level," he said. "We had neither the time nor resources to organise 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organised itself."