Sylvia Cranmer McLaughlin (December 24, 1916 – January 19, 2016) was an American pioneer in

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

. She, along with Kay Kerr and Esther Gulick, founded the Save San Francisco Bay Association, which eventually became

Save the Bay Save The Bay is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving San Francisco Bay and its related estuarine habitat areas. Founded by Catherine Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin, and Esther Gulick in 1961, the organization grew into a body that not o ...

Early life and education

Sylvia Cranmer was born in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

, the daughter of George E. Cranmer and Jean Louise Chappell Cranmer. Her father was a city park commissioner, and her mother was a violinist. Her maternal grandfather was Delos Allen Chappell, a Denver industrialist. While in Denver, she developed a love for the wilderness and the outdoors. She attended the

Ethel Walker School The Ethel Walker School, also commonly referred to as “Walker’s”, is a private, college preparatory, boarding and day school for girls in grades 6 through 12 plus postgraduate located in Simsbury, Connecticut. History Founded in 1911, ...

, then earned a bachelor's degree from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely fol ...

in French in 1939.

Activism

McLaughlin was president of the East Bay Vassar Club from 1952 to 1956. She was referred to as an "impractical idealist," a "do-gooder" and a "posy-picker" but she was credited as a leader in environmentalism, as one of the founders of the San Francisco Bay Association in 1961. "They were going to take the top off San Bruno Mountain and put it in the bay," she recalled in 2006. "That was considered progress." Save the Bay and other environmental organizations successfully fought the plans to fill in the San Francisco Bay, and led to the creation of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. She served on boards of directors for the

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...

, People for Open Space, the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Ca ...

, and the

San Francisco Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco, California. Characterized as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one", the participatory natur ...

. She chaired the advisory council of the University of California's Water Resources Center. In 1963, she was a delegate to the White House Conference on Natural Beauty, and helped to organize California's state equivalent. She received the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Award as "Berkeley's most useful citizen" in 1977. In 2004, she won the Spirit of Vassar Award from her ''alma mater''. In 2006, she attended the opening of Eastshore State Park. In 2007, she became a tree sitter in the

Berkeley oak grove controversy The University of California, Berkeley oak grove controversy arose over the planned removal of a grove of oak trees in preparation for the construction of a new student athletic training center for the University of California, Berkeley. The u ...

but was unsuccessful.

Personal life

Cranmer married mining executive Donald H. McLaughlin in 1948 and settled in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. She had two children and raised her two stepchildren in the

Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de la C ...

. Her husband died in 1984. She remained active in the environmental movement until her death, on January 19, 2016. Eastshore State Park was renamed McLaughlin Eastshore State Park in 2012, in recognition of her "tireless" environmental activism in the San Francisco Bay area. She became the second woman so honored in California, after Julia Pfeiffer Burns.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Sylvia American naturalists Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area American conservationists Vassar College alumni 1916 births 2016 deaths