Conservationist Patrick Noonan to deliver Grosvenor Lecture
Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
March 13, 2009
Conservationist Patrick F. Noonan will deliver the 11th Annual Grosvenor Distinguished Lecture Tuesday, April 7, at Texas State University-San Marcos.
This year’s lecture, “Conservation in the 21st Century,” will be at 7:30 p.m. in Evans Auditorium on campus.
Noonan is founder and chairman emeritus of the Conservation Fund, former president of the Nature Conservancy and vice chairman of the National Geographic Education Foundation. Gilbert M. Grosvenor, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Geographic Society, will be present that evening to introduce Noonan.
The Conservation Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving America’s natural and historic heritage. By working with public and private partners, the fund has protected more than six million acres of America’s outdoor heritage since its founding in 1985. In addition to his extensive work with the Conservation Fund and the Nature Conservancy, Noonan is also a founder and former chairman of the American Farmland Trust, and currently serves on its president’s council. He is a trustee emeritus of Gettysburg College and is currently a member of the board of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy at Duke University.
Noonan, who holds an M.B.A. and a masters in city and regional planning, has received numerous awards, including a five-year “genius” fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1985 for his pioneering work in fostering partnerships between businesses and the environmental community. In 2005, he was awarded the Pugsley Medal, which acknowledges exceptional 20th century champions of parks and conservation. He was recently recognized by the National Audubon Society as one of 100 conservation leaders whose lives and work shaped the growth of the American conservation movement in the 20th century.
Noonan has served on three presidential commissions--the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors (1985-1987), the President’s Commission on Environmental Quality (1991-1993) and the President’s Commission on White House Fellows (2001-2008).
The 11th Annual Grosvenor Lecture is being co-sponsored by the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education, the River Systems Institute, the James and Marilyn Lovell Center for Environmental and Hazards Research and the Department of Geography. For more information about the upcoming Grosvenor Distinguished Lecture, or to obtain free lecture tickets, please contact the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at (512) 245-1823 or e-mail bh1123@txstate.edu.