Dorothy Green (environmentalist)
Dorothy Green (March 16, 1929 – October 13, 2008) was an environmental activist and grassroots organizer extraordinaire, considered an inspiration and visionary to all who knew her. She is perhaps most remembered for being the founding president of the environmental group, Heal the Bay, but throughout her life, she accomplished much more.
"Dorothy Green was simply the most influential water quality activist in California for the last 30 years,"said Mark Gold, her protégé and seceding president of Heal the Bay in the organization’s press release upon her death.
Dorothy Green was born in on March 16, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Polish immigrants. She came to Los Angeles and enrolled at UCLA as a music major, playing cello in the school orchestra. She graduated in 1951, and in that same year, she married Jacob (Jack) Green, and would become mother to three children: Joshua, Avrom, and Herschel. Her husband was at her side as a behind-the-scenes supporter until his death in 2005.
Dorothy Green began her career as a water quality advocate in 1972 by working on a campaign to pass Proposition 20, the ballot initiative that established the California Coastal Commission. In 1980s, she joined the fight against the peripheral canal, was coordinator of Working Alliance to Equalize Rates, and president of the Los Angeles chapter of the League of Conservation Voters.
Her discovery of untreated wastewater spilling out into Santa Monica Bay spurred her to being together concerned citizens in her Westwood living room, an effort that would eventually lead to the founding of the group, Heal the Bay. Under her leadership, the group held beach rallies to gain new members and generate publicity, as well as testified at public hearings, successfully applying public pressure that eventually led to an agreement to stop dumping sewage sludge into the bay and to upgrade the Hyperion sewage treatment facility.
Dorothy Green said the group chose the name because it communicated hope, and her approach of encouraging collaboration among those with contrasting perspectives was the hallmark of her personal style. “Heal the Bay is such a positive organization and Dorothy set the tone of all of us,” said Madelyn Glickfield, former Heal the Bay board member. “I was in a lot of meetings with Dorothy, and it wasn’t about stopping things, but always about starting things.”
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