Harvey Broome
| Harvey Broome | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Harvey Benjamin Broome July 15, 1902 Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |
| Died | March 8, 1968 (aged 65) Knoxville, Tennessee, USA |
| Education |
University of Tennessee (1923) Harvard Law School (1926) |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Years active | 1928–1968 |
| Notable work |
Harvey Broome: Earth Man (1970) Faces of the Wilderness (1972) Out Under the Sky of the Great Smokies: A Personal Journal (1975) |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Waller Pursel |
| Parent(s) | George and Adelaide Smith Broome |
Harvey Benjamin Broome (July 15, 1902 – March 8, 1968) was an American lawyer, writer and conservationist. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Broome was a founding member of The Wilderness Society, for which he served as president from 1957 until his death in 1968, and played a key role in the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club is named the "Harvey Broome Group" in his honor.
Broome was born in Knoxville to George W. and Adeline Broome on July 15, 1902. During his childhood, he frequently visited his grandparents' farm in Fountain City (now a suburb of Knoxville). Located 40 miles north of the Great Smoky Mountains, it was here that Broome developed his love of the outdoors. At the age of fifteen, his father took him on his first camping trip, to Silers Bald in the Smokies.
After graduating from Knoxville High School in 1919, Broome attended the University of Tennessee, graduating in 1923. Three years later, he earned a law degree from Harvard University. Although he began his law career as a clerk, he eventually entered into private practice with a law firm in Oak Ridge, Tennessee called Kramer, Dye, McNabb and Greenwood. Realizing after several years that the life of a clerk had provided him with more time to spend in the outdoors, Broome left the firm to return to his former position. He clerked for federal district court judge Xen Hicks from 1930 to 1949, and for Judge Robert L. Taylor from 1958 to 1968.
In October 1934, while attending a forestry conference in the Smokies, Broome met fellow conservationists Bob Marshall, Benton MacKaye and Bernard Frank, all of whom shared a common interest in the need for an organization to protect America's wilderness areas. Three months later, The Wilderness Society was created; Broome would be heavily involved in the Society for the remainder of his life. Among his achievements was his work alongside Society executive director Howard Zahniser in persuading the United States Congress to create the National Wilderness Preservation System, which occurred in 1964 when Congress passed the Wilderness Act. Broome was present among other conservationists when President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill into law on September 3, 1964. He also wrote a letter detailing his predictions of the future of forest preservation, which is to be opened by the President of the United States on October 24, 1964.
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