Edgar Arthur Wayburn (September 17, 1906 – March 5, 2010) was an American environmentalist who served as the president of the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

five times in the 1960s. He has been recognized as one of the least-known yet most successful defenders of America's natural heritage. Wayburn played a crucial role in the establishment of significant achievements, including the creation of the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the Unite ...

, the creation and subsequent expansion of

Redwood National Park The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one List of national parks of the United States, United States national park and three List of California state parks, California state parks located along the coast of northern Cali ...

and

Point Reyes National Seashore Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes, Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US United States National Park Service, National Park Service as an ...

, and the expansion of Mount Tamalpais State Park.

Biography

Wayburn was born Edgar Arthur Waxelbaum on September 17, 1906, in Macon, Georgia to Lewis Isaac Waxelbaum and Marian "Mamie" Voorsanger Waxelbaum. He was a direct descendant of Rabbi Jacob Voorsanger, a prominent early Jewish leader in San Francisco and rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El. Wayburn graduated from the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

in 1926 and from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

in 1930. In 1933, he relocated to San Francisco to begin his medical practice. Wayburn's involvement with the Sierra Club began in 1939 when he joined a burro trip. After serving four years in the military as a doctor with the Army Air Forces in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, he returned to San Francisco. He was elected to the executive committee of the local Sierra Club chapter and established its first conservation committee. In 1947, Wayburn married Peggy Elliott, and together they actively participated in key conservation battles of their time, aiming to preserve wild places for future generations to explore and enjoy. Notably, Wayburn played a central role in the establishment of Redwoods National Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and contributed to the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. In 1995, he was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and in 1999

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the att ...

awarded him the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

. Upon presenting the 1999 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Wayburn, President Clinton said that he had "saved more of our wilderness than any other person alive." The

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

wrote an article commending the award, saying "The White House has made a well-informed choice in selecting Wayburn, 92, as a recipient next Wednesday of the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor." Wayburn published his memoir ''Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist'' in 2004. Wayburn was honored at a 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration as the recipient of the inaugural Howard C. Zahniser Lifetime Achievement Award, given to someone whose life of achievement in protecting wilderness most closely parallels those of the person principally responsible for the

Wilderness Act The Wilderness Act of 1964 () is a federal land management statute meant to protect U.S. Wilderness Area, federal wilderness and to create a formal mechanism for designating wilderness. It was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Socie ...

He died of natural causes on the evening of March 5, 2010 at the age of 103. At the time he was at his home in San Francisco with his family by his side. He was survived by four children: Cynthia Wayburn, Diana Wayburn, Laurie Wayburn, and William Wayburn. He was remembered by the ''

'' as, "a San Francisco physician and longtime president of the Sierra Club who was credited with protecting more parks and wilderness areas than any other American."

Activism

Wayburn served five terms as the Sierra Club's elected president, and was named the club's Honorary President in 1993. During a half-century of environmental achievements, Wayburn led and won campaigns to protect millions of acres of America's coasts, mountains, forests and tundra. Wayburn has left his mark in the following ways: * Establishing the nation's largest urban park, the

. Included in the park's expanse are San Francisco's beaches,

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island about 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco in San Francisco Bay, California, near the Golden Gate Strait. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fo ...

and the

Presidio A presidio (''jail, fortification'') was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence. The term is derived from the Latin word ''praesidium'' meaning ''pr ...

* Protecting over 100 million acres (400,000 km²) of Alaskan wild lands with the

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. ANILCA provided varying degrees of special protection to over of land, including national parks, n ...

, which doubled the size of

Denali National Park Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is a United States national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, centered on Denali (federally designated as Mount McKinley), the highest mountain in Nor ...

, created 10 new National Parks, and doubled the size of America's National Park system * Creating

, and then doubling the park's size 10 years later; * Increasing the area of California's Mount Tamalpais State Park from . Mount Tamalpais is now among the state's 10 most-visited state parks * Establishing the

* Establishing Wilderness areas throughout the American West

References

External links

Finding Aid to the Edgar Wayburn papers, 1923-2010 (bulk 1951-2007)
The Bancroft Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayburn, Edgar 1906 births 2010 deaths Sierra Club presidents American conservationists American men centenarians Sierra Club awardees Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients University of Georgia alumni Harvard Medical School alumni