Marion Stoddart

Marion Stoddart (born May 26, 1928) is an activist and community leader best known for her work leading up to the rescue and recovery of the Nashua River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Early years and education

Marion Stoddart was born in Reno, Nevada.[1] In 1940, her family moved to a small town called Friendly, where her father owned a General Store. The family also had an alfalfa farm.[1] As a teenager Stoddart helped her father run his store, and she worked in a post office.[1] After attending high school for only three years, Marion graduated, and attended Occidental College in Los Angeles where she studied anthropology and sociology.[1] She obtained a teaching credential from the University of California at Berkeley.[1] Stoddart met her future husband, Hugh, soon after leaving home. Hugh was a student at Caltech and later did graduate work at MIT. While at MIT Hugh invited Marion to visit him there, and they decided to marry.[2]

Saving the Nashua River

In the early 1960s there were no laws regulating the way waste from industry was disposed of on either the state or federal level in the United States. By the mid-1960s there was some preliminary legislation to regulate the pollution of waterways, but as yet no laws on the state level. In the 1960s, when Stoddart began to organize to save the Nashua River, it was one of the ten most polluted rivers in the US.[3]

In 1962 Stoddart moved to a small community, Groton in Massachusetts from Nevada with their three children.[4] Her home in Groton was only three quarters of a mile from the Nashua River, which by then was already known to be highly polluted, and even dangerous. Organizing the Nashua River Clean Up committee she enlisted the help of thousands of ordinary citizens. She met with Massachusetts Governor John Volpe, Fitchburg Mayor William Flynn, plus executives of the paper mills which were polluting the river. Through her tireless efforts Stoddart was able to get the first anti-water pollution bill enacted by any state in the US: the 1965 Massachusetts Clean Water Act.[3]

Stoddart’s work did not stop with the passage of the watershed legislation. She also founded the Nashua River Watershed Association. This organization helped to further protect 174 miles of the river and its major tributaries.[3]

Recognition

Stoddard was profiled on the “Today Show,” for her work.[5] In 1987 the United Nations honored her with their Environment Program’s Global 500 Award.[3] In 1993 the National Geographic Society profiled her life and work. Also in 1993 her work was chronicled in a children’s book “A River Ran Wild” by Lynne Cherry,[3] which is today standard curriculum for most fourth graders in the US.[5]

In 2010 Susan Edwards and Dorie Clark directed an award-winning, 30 minute documentary, “The Work of 1000,” about the life and work of Stoddart.[6]

Stoddart is the focus of a civic engagement program called “The Work of 1000,” which is also the name of the short documentary film made about her work.[7]

On May 2, 2012 US Representative Niki Tsongas, with Marion Stoddart standing beside her, announced legislation to designate the Nashua River as a Scenic and Wild River. That designation will continue to protect and preserve the river and allow it to receive federal monies to continue conservation efforts into the future.[4]

In honor of her 85th birthday the Nashua River Watershed Association, the organization that Stoddart founded, held a fundraising drive to support programs and activities that will expand, promote, and permanently protect the greenways along the rivers, streams, and wetlands in the Nashua River watershed.[8]

In July 2014 a pair of artists, Jon S. Allen and Sophy A. Tuttle began work on a mural in honor of Stoddart along the Nashua River in Fitchburg's Riverfront Park.[9]

Family

Stoddart is married to Hugh, a physicist, and has three children,[10] and five grandchildren.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sato, Hiroko (26 May 2013). "At 85, Groton environmentalist keeps rolling like the river she protects". LowellSun.com News. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000". Documentary Educational Resources. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "River Champions – Reader Nominated". American Rivers:Rivers Connect Us. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 Perry, David (31 July 2013). "SALUTE TO WOMEN: Marion Stoddart Thanks to her, Nashua River flows clean and clear". Sentinel and Enterprise. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  5. 1 2 Edwards, Susan (21 January 2011). "Marion Stoddart: Work of 1000 10-Minute Movie Short". You Tube. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Edwards, Susan (10 June 2010). "Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000". IMDb. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Work of 1000". Work of 1000 Civic Engagement Program. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Treanor-Kvenvold, Wynne (9 May 2013). "Shhhh! Don't Tell Marion Stoddart About Her 85th Birthday Celebration…". The Groton Line. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  9. ↑ J. Owen, Paula (18 July 2014). "Fitchburg mural honors environmentalist Marion Stoddart". TELEGRAM & GAZETTE. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "Inspirational Activist: Marion Stoddart and the Nashua River Watershed". Green Lifestyle Changes. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
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