Mandy Murie is known as the grandmother of the conservation movement. She was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and was a strong supporter of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
She served on the governing council of the Wilderness Society and attended the signing of the Wilderness Act by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. President Bill Clinton awarded her the Medal of Freedom in 1998 for her life time achievement in conservation.
Celia Hunter created the Alaska Conservation Society and worked with Murie to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was the first female president of the Wilderness Society and received the John Muir Award in 1991. “There’s not very many women who were heads of national conservation organizations,” Rogers said. “So that’s pretty impressive.”
