Edith K.  Pierpont

PROTECTOR OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Honored May, 1990

Edith K. Pierpont

Although many people retire to Santa Fe in pursuit of a life of leisure, for Edith Pierpont retirement welded her life-long interests and talents into a new public career. In New Mexico, at the age of sixty-one, she became a lobbyist for the environmental movement.

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1922 and raised with a deep appreciation for the nearby New England countryside, Edith was trained from an early age to observe and appreciate nature. Her physician father, a great nature lover, taught his children how to look at birds and flowers. "He taught by example about the things that grew around us," Edith recalled.

"As World War II came in, we grew a victory garden in the middle of the front lawn. During the 1940s, Father got interested in organic gardening, which we discussed at the dinner table."