Carolyn Cunningham, FCWC Board Member

At its annual meeting FCWC presented its first Edith G. Read Award to honor the memory of Edith Read, who died in April 2006 at the age of 102. Edith was an FCWC Board member from 1983 to 1996, a vice president for a number of those years, a Director Emerita, and one of its most illustrious members. Edith was a persuasive and persistent advocate for conservation for many years. She was personally instrumental in acquiring and protecting important open space in Rye in the 1950’s and 60s, the 47 acre Rye Nature Center, also a wetland area on Beaver Swamp Brook called Parcels A and B. Later she was equally instrumental in preserving the natural area at Playland Park that now bears her name, as the Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary.

In addition, she was a driving force in the establishment of the first non-rural Soil and Water Conservation District in Westchester County on whose Board she served and also chaired. Her environmental activities included serving on the board of the statewide Environmental Advocates, several Adirondack preservation organizations, the League of Women Voters, and the Rye Landmark Committee, where she helped to preserve the Jay Property in Rye.

Since Edith was not only a valued friend, but a mentor and role model to so many of us in the environmental community, the FCWC Board decided that the award should go to an outstanding student from our Westchester Environmental Student Council, who is “following her path of stewardship and passion for the environment.” The first award was presented to Alex Gertner of Scarsdale, who has been an exemplary, active president of the WESC group for two years.

Alex’s acceptance remarks concluded:

"While I am honored to be the first recipient of this distinction, I know my efforts over the past four years pale in comparison with Edith Read’s lifetime of service. A record of accomplishments in service of the environment, comparable to Edith Read’s, is perhaps unattainable for most. However, the path she set is one of more than simply accomplishments. To follow in Edith Read’s footsteps is to recognize environmental issues even when others negate their existence, to confront polluters beyond the scope of lagging laws and regulations, and to advance environmental efforts despite concentrated resistance and widespread apathy. This, I think, is Edith Read’s true legacy, and one that is entirely accessible and should be wholly attainable by all. Again, I thank you for this award."

Mayor Steve Otis, Rye, at the annual meeting of the Rye City Council at the Square House. May 2006

“It is fitting tonight that we make special note of the passing last week of Edith Read. Edith was born in 1904, the year Rye became a village. Her life spanned our municipal life to date and her commitment to Rye saw no limit.

“She served on this City Council and was the original Chair of Rye's Conservation Commission where she served for a decade. She was an active member of our Landmarks Advisory Committee for many years, served on the board of the Rye Historical Society, was a leader in the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County, and the Environmental Planning Lobby, New York's state-wide environmental lobbying organization.

“Edith was a dedicated and focused advocate. She rarely took no for an answer and never was satisfied with a partial answer. She convinced County Executive Andy O'Rourke to create a wildlife sanctuary behind Playland which bears her name. She helped create the Rye Nature Center, City acquisition of wetland areas known as parcels A & B off of Theodore Fremd Avenue, was an advocate for saving the Jay property, restoring Beaver Swamp Brook, and not allowing subdivision of the Parsons property.

“Edith was a pioneer in promoting environmental protection, the establishment of parks, and advancing historic preservation in Rye and throughout New York State. Her relentless pursuit of these goals was an inspiration to me. I will always remember Edith as a guiding influence and dear friend.

“On this occasion when we honor service to Rye and the bonds between our work and the work of the generations that came before us we can do no better than to honor Edith Read.”

Diane Moran
Chairman of the Rye Landmarks Advisory Committee 1981-2001 June 8, 2006

I have known Edith Read to be a life-long advocate for the environment and the preservation of historic resources. We first met in 1972 when Edith was chair of the Water Resources Committee of the Rye League of Women Voters when the issue at the time was flood control in the Blind Brook watershed. She taught us to get the facts first hand. She arranged field trips to the dam, walks along the brooks, meetings with experts and public officials. She taught us to be effective advocates by attending meetings and hearings, making calls, writing letters and speaking out at public meetings.

I was very pleased when Edith was appointed to the Landmarks Advisory Committee in the 1980's. Having grown up in Rye, she brought a wealth of first hand knowledge about the great estates and the people who lived in them. In days before the telephone she would go with her mother to call on the families who lived in Whitby Castle and the Parsons' estate.

As a member of the Landmarks Committee, she was influential in the significant efforts of Landmarks to preserve the Jay Mansion, the Parsons' Estate and Whitby Castle all located in the Boston Post Road Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Edith was a valued friend and mentor, a committed preservationist who inspired and encouraged me during the 20 years that I chaired the Landmarks Advisory Committee for the City of Rye. She has been a model of a life well lived in service to her community. I am thankful to have known her.

Environmental Advocates

Edith Read, a great lady and environmentalist, died on April 26, in Rye, New York. She was 102 years old.

In addition to her role in founding Environmental Advocates of New York in 1969, Edith worked with the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. Edith took the credo "think globally and act locally" to heart, and her honors demonstrate her devotion to conservation. She was the first person-and the only woman-to be honored by the Rye District Boy Scouts of America in 1959, for her work at the Rye Nature Center. In 1985, Westchester County honored Edith by establishing the Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary at Playland Park-thereby preserving and maintaining 170 acres of valuable fresh and salt water ecosystems along the Long Island Sound. In 1995, Edith was again recognized for her remarkable contribution to protecting Westchester's natural environment by the establishment of the Edith Read Environmental Advocacy Fund at Pace Law School.

Edith will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know and work with her.

Paul Rheingold, former Board member- Friends of Edith Read Wildlife Sanctuary

I had the privilege of serving with Edith for several years on the Board of the Friends Committee for the Wildlife Sanctuary at Playland named after her. She had been the driving force to separate a large unused part of Playland and protect it from development. On the board she imbued the members of the Friends group with the spirit of preservation for the Sanctuary, which includes Playland Lake itself.

Edith's style was never to lead or demand but rather to point quietly to facts that supported what she felt should be done. Who was going to go against the view of an elderly lady who was always had the facts and was always correct?
Even today when our Friends group meets, her spirit is with us.

Paul Hicks, former board member, Friends of Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary.

Edith Read was a conservation pioneer who inspired me and countless others with her firm commitment to protecting open space and biodiversity. Fortunately, we have the Edith G. Read Sanctuary to remind us and future generations of her environmental leadership.

Garrison R. Corwin, Jr.
Former President of Friends of Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary, Inc.; and former FCWC President.

Edith Read – “Good Friend and Great Environmentalist”

I met Edith Read at a meeting in 1969, at which the Environmental Planning Lobby was reorganized. My memory is that it was held at Susan Reed’s house in Tarrytown or somewhere over on the Hudson. I had confused the two Read ladies, who were both very active environmentalists, for the first part of my environmental involvement in the early 70’s.

My contact with Edith grew, because she was so active in Westchester on environmental matters and she pointed out to me that my Aunt, Jane Walden Murphy, had been one of her closest childhood friends and that through my Aunt Jane, she had also known my mother.

Edith was not only very active in Westchester and very much involved in the formation of the Federated Conservations of Westchester County, but she was also very active in the Environmental Planning Lobby and the various Adirondack groups working on the Adirondack land plan, in which I was also involved, so I kept running into her.

I came to have a deep respect for her dedication to the environment through all these organizations and she began to describe to me her work with the Soil and Water Board of Westchester County and particularly with flood control on Blind Brook Watershed and the Beaver Swamp Brook Watershed along Theodore Fremd Avenue. She was a tremendous inspiration to me and a role model, because she was so concerned about doing “what was right” and not getting bogged down in side issues or details.

If the political process is at its best, a system of compromise, Edith made it clear that “you can’t compromise with the environment”. You either harm the environment or not.

She urged me to undertake a legal proceeding to protect the natural area at Playland, which the County advertised as a sanctuary and a bird observation area, but used as a dump for Playland Park. She committed herself to an arraignment whereby she paid “half rates” for my legal representation and thereby, she “put her money where her mouth was” in favor of the environment, an observation that has been made about her in many contexts.

This became a fairly major undertaking and while we never actually completed service of process, very detailed legal papers were worked up and meetings, conferences and telephone calls with the County occurred over a period of some time. When they became convinced that we were indeed going to sue them, they agreed to dedicate the Sanctuary area, including Playland Lake, as a natural area. We prepared a Park Charter to accomplish this in the “forever wild” mode, which Edith was passionate about through her work in the Adirondacks. We had difficulty in getting Westchester County to accept the proposed Charter as drafted.

Edith rejected any discussion of compromise of the “forever wild” language and things continued to deteriorate and she formally withdrew her name from consideration as the name of the park. The County had already publicly announced that the park was being named for her and this had occurred prior to an election. Edith’s position was such that the County decided to go ahead with the proposed Charter and the Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary became a park as it continues to exist today.

She will be missed by all and particularly by me. Her dedication, her belief in the justice of the cause, her tenacity and her warmth, human qualities and sense of humor, made her an inspiring, engaging and attractive person to work with.

Mary Begrish Hory

I think of Edith first as a dear friend from my beginning years at the Rye Nature Center in the early 1970s. I had the good fortune of getting to know her family, work with her daughter Nancy Lamb on the Rye Conservation Commission/Advisory Council (CC/AC), and be included in some special family events, one of which was her 80th birthday dinner.

Because my father was on the Rye City Council Edith figured she had a perfect individual who she could count on to support her and help accomplish her goals. Many nights, prior to dinner, the phone would ring and I’d hear my father saying, “Yes, Edith.”
Edith got the City of Rye to purchase two wetland parcels (Parcels A & B) from the county for $1 as part of an on-going flood plan for Beaver Swamp Brook. While serving on the CC/AC for thirteen years, I was more involved with Edith’s daughter Nancy, but Edith was always in the background somewhere on the issues.

Edith was catalyst. She was feisty, unrelenting, and always had a delightful sense of humor, quick wit and a special talent for getting her way. I learned a great deal from watching her in action that has served me well throughout my life. The word “no” doesn’t exist in my vocabulary because of Edith. If you can imagine it, then somehow it can be done!

Edith would pick me sometimes, probably when she had worn others out, to go off on toots, day or night. The first of many was to a Stamford Connecticut quonset hut for a 7:00 a.m. meeting on Long Island Sound. This was the beginning of what is today “Save the Sound.”

I remember speaking to a large gathering at Playland on protecting the lake, marsh and natural area there, because it was part of the northeast migratory bird flyway. Little did I know then that in the near future the area would be named for Edith because of her efforts.

I was so fortunate to have known and loved this extraordinary woman. It is rewarding to see the environmental cause go on as others follow in her footsteps. I thank FCWC for asking us to remember Edith because it has brought back so many great memories of a major part of my life.

Sue Nash, Assistant Secretary, Friends of Edith Read Sanctuary Board.

Determined, honest, level-headed, dependable – what an honor it was to know Edith. She not only used these qualities in the service of Westchester conservation, but also as a trusted friend and role model to many. Unwillingly “retired’ to the Osborn Home at last, she faithfully attended her Friends of Read Sanctuary meetings as long as she was able, cutting through our often cobwebby agenda with her common sense and lack of pretense.

Edith was indeed a legendary but always such a real human being. We will miss her.