Allen Morgan
Encyclopedia
Wayland, Massachusetts
Wayland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,994 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on Cochituate, which is part of Wayland, please see the article Cochituate, Massachusetts.-History:...
was a noted ornithologist, tireless environmental advocate, avid tennis player, and founder of Sudbury Valley Trustees
Sudbury Valley Trustees
Sudbury Valley Trustees is a regional open space land trust headquartered at Wolbach Farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts.- Mission :The SVT mission is to conserve land and protect wildlife habitat in the Concord, Assabet, and Sudbury river watersheds in eastern Massachusetts, one of the most scenic,...
.
Quotations
"What we save now is all we will ever save.""Save it now! You can't save it later."
"The public's right to a high quality environment must take precedence over the individual's right to do as he pleases."
"Our quality of life is a reflection of the quality of the landscape we live in."
Biography
"Alan is a born and gifted field naturalist, is one of the best and most active of the younger observers of birds in the State of Massachusetts and furnishes monthly observations of interest for the Bird Bulletin of the New England Museum of Natural History in Boston and for my own Season Reports on New England Bird life in the National Audubon Magazine." (Griscom, 1942)"He was a conservationist long before it was fashionable, and an inspiring public speaker who could galvanize his audience into action. His untiring spirit, unwavering beliefs, and powers of persuasion brought him success time and time again as he rescued thousands of acres of open space from the threat of development." (Atkins, 1990)
Ornithologist of note
A protege of Ludlow GriscomLudlow Griscom
Ludlow Griscom was an American ornithologist known as a pioneer in field ornithology.-Biography:Griscom was born in New York City, the son of Clement Acton Griscom and Genevieve Sprigg Ludlow. He was a protege of Frank Chapman, later working for Thomas Barbour at Harvard University's Museum of...
, Morgan's life list comprised more than 600 different birds. He saw the very first Black-backed Gull
Black-backed Gull
Black-backed Gull may refer to:* Kelp Gull , of the southern hemisphere, also known as the Southern Black-backed Gull* Lesser Black-backed Gull , of the northern Atlantic...
ever recorded in the Sudbury Valley. Morgan was also a member of a team of three birders who sighted North America's first Cattle Egret
Cattle Egret
The Cattle Egret is a cosmopolitan species of heron found in the tropics, subtropics and warm temperate zones. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Bubulcus, although some authorities regard its two subspecies as full species, the Western Cattle Egret and the Eastern Cattle Egret...
in April 1952. He started keeping bird journals on February 18, 1936 to record where he went, when he went, how many birds he saw, and what was interesting about each birding excursion, a practice that he kept religiously up until the late 1960s.
Education
Morgan attended WaylandWayland, Massachusetts
Wayland is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,994 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on Cochituate, which is part of Wayland, please see the article Cochituate, Massachusetts.-History:...
public schools, Mount Prospect School for Boys in Waltham
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
, and Weston High School
Weston High School, Massachusetts
Weston High School is a high school in Weston, Massachusetts, United States, a suburb 12 miles west of Boston. The school is located at 444 Wellesley Street in Weston. In 2009-2010 it had 711 students. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges...
in Weston
Weston, Massachusetts
Weston is a suburb of Boston located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States in the Boston metro area. The population of Weston, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, is 11,261....
, Massachusetts. His interests in ornithology began in 1934 when an English and Latin teacher at Mount Prospect, David Lloyd Garrison, came to class all excited about an Orange-crowned Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
The Orange-crowned Warbler is a small songbird of the New World warbler family.These birds are distinguished by their lack of wing bars, streaking on the underparts, strong face marking or bright colouring, resembling a fall Tennessee Warbler. The orange patch on the crown is usually not visible...
that he had seen at Totten's Pond in back of the school, a very rare sighting for Waltham. Garrison was a close friend of the famed ornithologist Ludlow Griscom.
Morgan gave his first public lecture on birds and conservation to the Wayland Garden Club in 1938, and was elected the first non-Harvard student member of the Harvard Ornithological Club in 1939 at age 14.
Through Garrison, Morgan had the opportunity to meet Russell Mason, then director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society
Massachusetts Audubon Society
The Massachusetts Audubon Society, founded in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Protecting the nature of Massachusetts." Mass Audubon is independent of the National Audubon Society, and in fact was founded...
(Mass Audubon), and in 1940, he got to know Mason further during a summer job with the curator of the Boston Society of Natural History
Boston Society of Natural History
The Boston Society of Natural History in Boston, Massachusetts, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the society occupied several successive locations in Boston's Financial...
, cleaning and cataloging a collection of bird skins housed adjacent to the Mass Audubon headquarters in Boston. He joined Mass Audubon as a member in 1941 and during that year he gave another lecture to the Wayland Garden Club, using a bird-song record and color slides borrowed from Massachusetts Audubon. The club later established a wildlife sanctuary in the Wayland river marshes.
In early 1943, Morgan left high school halfway through his senior year at Weston High School to enter Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
. He joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve in February, and was employed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service during May and June, working on a gull control project along the Maine coast. He was called to duty by the Marine Corps in July 1943 and was assigned to officer training at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
. He served in the Marine Corps in North and South Carolina, Virginia, and California from 1944-1946.
Following graduation from Bowdoin in 1947 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, Morgan took a job as an insurance underwriter at Aetna Casualty & Surety Company in Hartford, Connecticut. He left Hartford in 1950 to partner with his father, a life insurance salesman in Boston, Massachusetts, but was recalled to the Marine Corps later in the year. He resigned his commission with the Marine Corps and returned to the life insurance business in 1951. He received his Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation from The American College
The American College (Bryn Mawr, PA)
The American College is a nonprofit private educational institution located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It offers several professional certifications and two types of Master's degree. Annually, The American College educates approximately 40,000 students, mainly through distance education.The...
in 1957.
Shortly thereafter, a friend told Morgan that he had attended a local showing of films by Richard Borden, the famous Walt Disney Company wildlife film-maker and that a Cattle Egret apparently had been captured in the film that had been shot only five months earlier. The next day, Morgan met with Borden, viewed the film and confirmed the recording. Morgan wrote scripts for several of Borden's films, leading to his own interest in wildlife photography. He began to shoot his own 16 millimeter films and sold footage to the Disney Company. Morgan lectured extensively (logging in excess of 100 speaking engagements during some years). He called his presentation "Conservation is Common Sense."
Sudbury Valley Trustees
Morgan began a campaign to preserve "open space" for people, and habitats for wildlife in 1953. During that year, working with six friends (B. Allen Benjamin, Dr. George K. Lewis, Henry Parker, Willis B. Ryder, Richard Stackpole, and Roger P. Stokey), he founded the Sudbury Valley Trustees, Inc. (SVT), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to conserve land and protect wildlife habitat in the Concord, Assabet, and Sudbury river watersheds in eastern Massachusetts for the benefit of present and future generations. The Marsh Wren on Cattail logo of SVT (seen here on the right) is part of the enduring legacy left by Morgan. This logo, prepared under the supervision of, and at the direction of, Allen Morgan, uniquely illustrates Morgan's vision for the organization at its inception.Mass Audubon
In 1956 Richard Borden, the newly appointed president of Mass Audubon, asked Morgan to join its Board of Directors. Morgan was appointed Audubon's fifth Executive Vice President less than a year later in November, 1957.Under Morgan's stewardship, Mass Audubon established its first scientific staff and oversaw its transition from a bird watching and educational group of 4,500 members and 65 permanent staff in 1957 to the largest and most influential conservation organization in the region with a permanent staff of 145 and nearly 28,000 members by the time he left in 1980. Morgan expanded educational programs, established numerous wildlife sanctuaries, and expanded Mass Audubon's nature centers. Morgan traveled widely on behalf of Mass Audubon and lobbied successfully for conservation legislation at both the state and federal level.
Mass Audubon established the Allen Morgan Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990 as a tribute to Morgan. Mass Audubon awards this prestigious prize to "an individual who demonstrates the dedication, passion, and daring that Morgan exhibited in protecting the natural world."
Positions
Morgan served on the Wayland Planning Board from 1958 to 1972. He founded the Wayland Conservation Commission in 1959, serving as its Chairman until 1972. He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislative Oversight Committee on Water Pollution in 1966. Morgan was Chairman of the Governor Francis W. Sargent's Committee for Reorganizing the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources from 1969 to 1971. He served on or consulted with a number of environmental committees, boards, and government commissions, including the Sudbury Valley Trustees, The Environmental Policy Center (Washington, D.C.), the Center for Energy Policy, the New England Wildflower Preservation Society, the Wayland Conservation Commission, the Elbanobscot Foundation, Inc., the National Wildlife FederationNational Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over four million members and supporters, and 48 state and territorial affiliated organizations...
, the national Rural Environment and Conservation Advisory Board—Department of Agriculture, the Massachusetts Conservation Council, and the Coastal Wetland Action Committee. In 1972, Morgan was one of three representatives of the United States at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.
SVT full time
After Morgan's retirement from Mass Audubon in 1980, he was chosen a Fellow of Saybrook College at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. In 1981, he turned his attention full time to SVT as its first Executive Director. He expanded the SVT membership base, hired a staff, and supervised the acquisition of significant amounts of open space throughout the Sudbury River watershed while continuing his lecturing, consulting, and writing until his death.
Morgan died at the Lahey Clinic
Lahey Clinic
The Lahey Clinic is a physician-led nonprofit teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine based in Burlington, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1923 by surgeon Frank H...
in 1990 from prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
a few months prior to his planned retirement in August. He is buried at the Old North Cemetery in Wayland.
Morgan is remembered annually by SVT when it gives the Morgan Volunteer Award to a volunteer who has distinguished him or herself on behalf of SVT. The Marsh Wren on Cattail theme of the SVT logo finds further expression in this Award which is shown in the photograph on the right above the old SVT logo. The old SVT logo, shown here below the Morgan Volunteer Award, is no longer in general use at SVT but is one that Morgan would have known intimately. The logo uniquely illustrates, beyond the power of mere words, the essential vision that Morgan established for the organization he founded.
Honors and awards
- Bowdoin College, Honorary Doctor of Science
- University of MassachusettsUniversity of MassachusettsThis article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
, Honorary Doctor of Science - American International CollegeAmerican International CollegeAmerican International College is a private, co-educational liberal-arts college located in the Mason Square neighborhood of Springfield, Massachusetts.-History:...
, Honorary Doctor of Laws - American MotorsAmerican MotorsAmerican Motors Corporation was an American automobile company formed by the 1954 merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.George W...
national Conservation Award - The Public Relations Society of AmericaPublic Relations Society of AmericaThe ' , based in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals. The organization has more than 21,000 members, including professionals from public relations agencies, corporations, government, health care institutions, military, professional services firms,...
, Outstanding Citizen Award - The National Council of State Garden Clubs, Silver Seal Award
- The New England Wild Flower SocietyNew England Wild Flower SocietyThe New England Wild Flower Society is the nation's oldest conservation organization. Dedicated to the preservation of native plants, the Society operates Garden in the Woods, a native plant botanical garden, at its headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts...
Award for Outstanding Service to Conservation - The Trustees of Reservations Conservation Award
- Middlesex News 1989 Man of the Year
- United States Environmental Protection AgencyUnited States Environmental Protection AgencyThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
, Environmental Masters Award - Thoreau-Muir Wilderness Prize of the Walden Earthcare Congress
- Center for Environmental Intern Programs, Founder's Award
External links
- The Massachusetts Historical Society Library, Allen H. Morgan Papers, 1923-1990
- Ludlow Griscom December 3, 1942 Letter of Recommendation to the Director of Admissions, Bowdoin College
- Sudbury Valley Trustees website (Sudbury, Massachusetts)
- Massachusetts Audubon Society website
- Old North Cemetery, Wayland, Massachusetts website
- Wayland, Massachusetts website