From the Editor

For the past year, in addition to my regular gig as editor of this magazine, I’ve had the pleasure of editing Now & Ever: 150 Years of Making a Difference, a book published by the College on the occasion of its 150th anniversary. The book highlights members of the Wellesley community who have made a difference in the world, including artists, physicians, entrepreneurs, a farmer … you name it. Dozens of fascinating people appear in Now & Ever, but one who particularly captivated lead writer Mojie Crigler and me is Marjory Stoneman Douglas, class of 1912.

Before Douglas became a journalist, conservationist, and activist known as the “Grande Dame of the Everglades,” she navigated a complicated family life. When Douglas was 6, her mother divorced her father after he had a series of failed entrepreneurial ventures. She and her mother moved to her mother’s family’s home, which wasn’t a supportive household. Douglas’s mother suffered from mental illness and had several stays in a mental hospital; Douglas was nervous about leaving her to go to college.

But at Wellesley, Douglas thrived, joining the suffrage club and finding inspiration in the College’s remarkable early professors, including Katharine Lee Bates, class of 1880. After graduating, she moved to New Jersey and married a con man who was secretly already married. Douglas left him and reconnected in Miami with her estranged father, who went on to publish the Miami Herald, where Douglas became a writer.

Although Douglas was an early supporter of turning the Everglades into a national park, she didn’t become a nationally known figure until she was in her late 50s, with the publication of Everglades: River of Grass. In 1969, at age 79, Douglas became the first president of the Friends of the Everglades; in 1993, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, now on display in the Science Complex, for her conservation work.

“Be a nuisance where it counts,” Douglas once said. “Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. … Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption, and bad politics—but never give up.”

I hope you consider purchasing Now & Ever in the College’s bookstore (in person or online) to learn more about Douglas and many other inspiring members of our community. I also hope you will take advantage of the many events and programs planned as part of Wellesley’s 150th. As we attest in “Alma Mater,” we’ll sing her praises, now and ever—and maybe a little extra loudly this year.