Margaret Murie

Margaret Murie
File:Olaus and Mardy Murie.jpg Mardy Murie and Olaus at their home, Grand Tetons, 1953
Born	Margaret Thomas (1902-08-18)August 18, 1902 Seattle, Washington
Died	Moose, Wyoming
Pen name	Mardy Murie
Occupation	Author, ecologist, and environmentalist
Nationality	American
Genre	Memoir
Subject	Conservation, Wilderness Preservation
Notable works	Two in the Far North, Wapiti Wilderness
Notable awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom
Spouse	Olaus Murie
Relatives	see Murie family article, people

Margaret Thomas "Mardy" Murie (August 18, 1902 – October 19, 2003) was a naturalist, author, adventurer, and conservationist. Dubbed the "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement" by both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, she helped in the passage of the Wilderness Act, and was instrumental in creating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was the recipient of the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States.

Early life

Born Margaret Thomas on August 28, 1902 in Seattle, Washington, Murie moved to Fairbanks, Alaska with her family when she was five years old. She attended Simmons College (Massachusetts), then transferred to and became the first woman to graduate from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, (now the University of Alaska Fairbanks), with a degree in business administration in 1924. She met Olaus Murie in Fairbanks, and they married in 1924 in Anvik, Alaska. The couple spent their honeymoon traveling over the upper Koyukuk River region by boat and dogsled, conducting caribou research. The couple were the inspiration for John Denver's ballad "A Song For All Lovers."

Books and articles

Two in the Far North, a memoir published in 1962, chronicles Murie's early life in Alaska, marriage to Olaus Murie, and research expeditions in Alaska. Murie also wrote Island Between, published in 1977, and Wapiti Wilderness, published in 1966 with her husband Olaus Murie as co-author. A documentary, Arctic Dance was made about her life.

Work as a naturalist

In 1956, Murie began a campaign with her husband to protect what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The couple recruited U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas to help persuade President Dwight Eisenhower to set aside 8,000,000 acres (32,000 km²) as the Arctic National Wildlife Range.

After her husband's death in 1963, Murie began writing and took over much of her husband's conservation work, writing letters and articles, traveling to hearings and making speeches. Murie returned to Alaska to survey potential wilderness areas for the National Park Service and worked on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act that was signed by President Carter in 1980. That legislation set aside 104,000,000 acres (420,000 km²) of land in Alaska and doubled the size of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Murie Residence in Moose, Wyoming was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, and as part of the Murie Ranch Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. It now houses a conservation institute named for Murie and her husband.

Awards

Murie received the Audubon Medal in 1980, the John Muir Award in 1983, and the Robert Marshall Conservation Award in 1986. She was made an Honorary Park Ranger by the National Park Service and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Alaska.

In 1998 President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Just prior to her 100th birthday in 2002, Murie received the J.N. Ding Darling Conservationist of the Year Award, the National Wildlife Federation's highest honor.

Murie died in Moose, Wyoming, on October 19, 2003, at the age of 101.

References

Sources

• Two in the Far North ISBN 0-88240-489-X
• Waipiti Wilderness ISBN 0-87081-155-X
• Island Between ISBN 0-912006-04-8

External links

• Works by or about Margaret Murie in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Mardy Murie obituary
• Los Angeles Times Obituary for Mardy Murie
• Mardy Murie at Findagrave.com