Happy 100, Mardy Murie
On August 18, conservation legend Mardy Murie will turn 100 years old. Mardy was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska in 1924. She would later write Two in the Far North, chronicling her romance with renowned biologist Olaus Murie, and in 1998 win a Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work protecting wildlife and wilderness.
A model of steadfast perseverance, she tells young people, “To be successful, you just have to show up and not quit.” And she knows how to defuse radical exuberance without derailing youthful enthusiasm. She lives at her ranch in Moose, Wyo., a Mecca for naturalists, environmentalists and political leaders from around the world.
The nonprofit Murie Center, also in Moose, will celebrate Mardy’s birthday with talks by authors Terry Tempest Williams and Peter Matthiessen. For more information, go to www.muriecenter.org.
– Pattie Layser
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Happy 100, Mardy Murie.
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