Richard Pough © TNC

Richard Pough
Nature Conservancy President
1954–1956

Richard Pough, a co-founder of The Nature Conservancy, passed away on Tuesday, June 24 at his home in Chilmark, Massachusetts. He was 99 years old.

He was born on April 19, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1926. He received an honorary Doctorate from Haverford College.

In 1950, Mr. Pough took hold of a small group that called itself the Ecologists Union and used it to create what he described as "an organization that was going to prove something in terms of preserving natural areas." He named it The Nature Conservancy and began a legacy of preserving nature by buying land. Mr. Pough served as president of The Nature Conservancy from 1954-1956, and under his leadership, the Conservancy protected its first tract of land by acquiring 60 acres along the Mianus River Gorge on the New York/Connecticut border. He also created a revolving loan fund called the Land Preservation Fund, which is still the organization's foremost conservation tool.

Mr. Pough's interest in conservation came from a love of the world of living things and the knowledge that action needed to be taken to ensure its permanent protection. He once explained in an interview, "My mother, a Bostonian, always more or less emphasized that if something needed doing, it was up to me to do it… not to wait for somebody else to do it. So I was imbued with the idea that if you saw something that needed doing—you did it."

According to Steve McCormick, current president of The Nature Conservancy, "Dick Pough's straight-forward vision of a solution-oriented, non-confrontational approach to conservation defined The Nature Conservancy 52 years ago, and continues to guide our practices today. Dick was a man of action, and because he didn’t let the grass grow under his feet when he started the Conservancy, there are now literally thousands of places around the world where people can feel the grass growing beneath their own feet."

Mr. Pough retired from full-time conservation work at the age of 80, but continued to serve on a number of boards. In addition to his valuable work with the Conservancy, he has participated in the development of the Open Space Institute, the Charles Lindberg Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Martha’s Vineyard Conservation Society. He authored the Audubon Bird Guides, which have sold more than one million copies.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Moira Flannery Pough, his son Edward W. "Wren" Pough and his granddaughter, Juliette Pough. He is survived by brothers Frederick and Harold Pough, son Tristram H. Pough, daughter-in-laws Victoria and Marguerite Pough and two grandchildren.