Marin Women's Hall of Fame

Pamela Wright Lloyd
By Stephanie Douglass

 Introduction

 In 1998 Pamela Wright Lloyd was inducted into the Marin Woman’s Hall of Fame in the “Environment” category.  Her contributions as an environmentalist are numerous and weighty, but as her nomination form notes, Pam Lloyd’s work encompasses much more.  Lloyd had tirelessly championed numerous causes in Marin, California and beyond.  She has been an environmental crusader, community educator, minority advocate, community service role model and youth supporter.  To understand this “can-do woman with a can-do attitude”, it helps to know a little about her upbringing and family.

The Making of a Community Leader and Environmental Activist

Lloyd grew up in San Francisco with her mother and step-father.  Her mother was one of 4 daughters and encouraged her own daughters to be independent.  Lloyd feels that her mother and step-father’s openness in allowing her to “go for what she wanted” fostered a confidence in her that made her successful when she set her mind to a cause.

Lloyd’s mother was active in community service and she encouraged her children to volunteer in the summers.  Lloyd’s work at a children’s hospital one summer eventually led to her future involvement with the Junior League, an organization which trains its members for community service.    

In addition to volunteer work, she revealed the joys of the outdoors and took her children horseback riding, camping and swimming.  One of Lloyd’s happy childhood memories is of attending a girl’s camp in the Sierra for four summers during the war years.  While Lloyd disliked the nature courses, she loved camping, the smell of the pines and the teamwork.  She says she was “absorbed” by the experience.

Lloyd loved English and literature from an early age and pursued this passion with the support of “wonderful” teachers at The Katherine Delmar Burke School in San Francisco.  The all-girl’s school allowed Lloyd many opportunities, which she took advantage of, graduating as president and valedictorian of her senior high school class.

Lloyd met her future husband, W. James Lloyd, shortly before graduating high school.  Early in their romance they found they had a common love of hiking, camping and skiing.

            Surprisingly, one of the greatest influencers in Lloyd’s life, was a man she can not remember.  Lloyd’s father, George Wright, died in a car accident when she was only 2½.  One of her mother’s gifts to Lloyd was to keep her aware of Wright’s history and legacy.  Wright was a conservationist and a prolific writer, which allowed Lloyd a unique way of getting to know him.  As Lloyd got older, she started to see the connections between herself and her father.  Both were writers and had strong ties to the environment. 

In 1980, Lloyd helped established a national program, The George Wright Society, named for her father honoring his historic role in shaping the National Park Service.  In 2000 the George Wright Society celebrated its twenty-year anniversary.  In the George Wright Forum (the publication of the Society), Pamela wrote an article in which she pays tribute to this man who, played such a vital role in her upbringing.  In her piece Lloyd tells how she came to know her father through the “legacy of his work” and more specifically “through his professional writing.” 

She offers up one of her favorite pieces of his writing, a passage from his second essay of the National Park Service Fauna Series No. 2, published in July 1934.

Conservation thus is seen to be not an end in itself or a creed over which men might fight according to personal prejudice, but a means for securing the maximum cropping of natural resource with out destruction of productive capital.  The forms of cropping include the realization of sporting, economic, aesthetic and scientific values… Much of man’s genuine progress is dependent upon the degree to which he is capable of this sort of control.  If we destroy nature blindly, it is a boomerang which will be our undoing… Consecration to the task of adjusting ourselves to the natural environment so that we secure the best values from nature without destroying it is not useless idealism; it is goo hygiene for civilization.

In this lies the true portent of this national parks effort.  Fifty years from now we shall still be wrestling with the problems of joint occupation of national parks by men and mammal, but it is reasonable to predict that we shall have mastered some of the simplest maladjustments. It is far better to pursue such a course through success be but partial than to relax in despair and allow the destructive forces to operate unchecked. 

           And indeed 50 years after George Wright published this essay, his daughter would be championing his legacy and “wrestling” with environmental issues.   By leaving behind visually stirring writings, like the following National Park Service field notes, which are deeply reminiscent of John Muir’s works, George Wright left his daughter an inspiring legacy.  Wild flowers too are at their height in the Merced Canon particularly as regards the poppies which swept up the steep slopes in glorious tongues of flame.

March 30, 1930, Yosemite Valley to Merced California.

           I arrived at Cracker Lake shortly after ten.  Over the west wall great shafts of sunlight from the breaking cloud shot downward though the purple haze.  Some angles of the rocks reflected the light dazzlingly… some goats posing on rocky prominences were illuminated from behind by these beams so that they looked twice natural size.  Radiant pagan gods framed in silver halos they gazed at lower earth from their high thrones.

Field Notes, September 1, 1931, Cracker Lake, Glacier National Park 

             The following years of formal education found Pam Wright at Smith College and the University of California at Berkeley where she earned her B.A. in English Literature.

 Pam and Jim were married in December 1956, following his two-year stint in the Army.  After her husband obtained an engineering degree from Stanford University, the Lloyd’s family life began (eventually to include four children).  In 1962, with two children and one on the way, they moved to Marin.  Lloyd settled into the Mill Valley community quickly, getting involved in local volunteering through work at her children’s school, and helping establish the Marin Volunteer Bureau.

A Civil Rights Advocate

             In February of 1968, Lloyd (while serving as admissions chairman) gave a presentation to the Junior League of San Francisco that would be reprinted for years and distributed to League chapters all over the U.S. Lloyd made a case for the inclusion of minorities in the League.  She urged members to look beyond the color of skin and find the best and brightest members, regardless of their ethnic background.  When in 2000, Anette Harris was elected as the first African – American President of the Junior League of San Francisco, Lloyd sent Harris a letter congratulating her and a copy the 1968 piece she had written.  In her letter to Harris, Lloyd’s joy at Harris’ appointment is evident.  Lloyd tells Harris that while she probably did not “appreciate the unprecedented nature of “ the admissions statement she had delivered to the League in 1968, she did remember that the piece was “reproduced nationally” and that at times ”received a chilly reception”. 

These two women, both English majors, both committed to raising their families in Marin, found leadership positions in the League 30 years apart.

The Launching of a Career in the Environment – Junior League and Stanford

             While Lloyd’s youth and young adulthood provided ample kindling for the budding environmentalist, an opportunity provided by the Junior League in 1970 ignited the fire.

In the summer of 1970, 15 years out of college, with four kids and a busy life raising a family and working as a active volunteer in the schools and community, Lloyd   accepted an opportunity to attend a conference which would change her life and helped set in motion a series of events and projects that would lead to revolutionary environmental preservation and improvement efforts in Marin, California and ultimately communities across the U.S.  The Junior League offered Lloyd the opportunity to participate in an intensive week-long course at Stanford University.  The course was titled “The Environment” and it launched Lloyd’s future as an environmental activist.

At the end of the course, Lloyd wrote a summary of her experience for the League. In unabashedly excited language, she described the experience.  The courses presented the “incredible miracle of LIFE” and the “precarious balance in which MAN and his ENVIROMENT” exist.  Lloyd’s zealous summary notes that man is “inseparably involved with, totally dependent upon” and “ultimately responsible for” our natural world.

The week included extensive background reading material, sixteen basic formal lectures, ten informal lectures/panel discussion, daily seminars, and daily “interchange of ideas and thinking.”  The attendees included people from all walks of life -- from conservationist to ranchers, from congressmen to doctors, from urban planners to farmers.

Lloyd explained that the “very incredible week” highlighted a number if issues or ideas including; the importance of the “interwoven” state of humans and the environment and the danger of any “diminishing of that Environment” would lead to a reduction of  “Man’s opportunity for self-knowledge”, that our natural resources are “finite” and “only through tremendous care, changing of priorities and long-term planning can man achieve a balance between himself and is environment”.  She also emphasized a theme that would reappear throughout her life in community service, that major resources are “common property” and thus “use and control” must involve the public -- “the crucial job at hand is to educate people”.

In a powerful affirmation of her experience, Lloyd wrote “what I learned has wrought fundamental changes in my attitudes, perceptions and priorities”.

In her summary Lloyd also referred to two letters she received that in retrospect had a great impact on her future.  The first was from Congressional Representative Paul McCloskey. McCloskey emphasized the importance of citizens educating themselves and  taking the lead on environmental issues by using their education to communicate with elected representatives.  At this crucial early time in the environmental movement, he said that “any citizen” had the opportunity to become an “expert” and contribute “to the national welfare by constructive comment and suggestions to individual legislators.”  He asked Lloyd to keep him informed of her environmental learnings, thus reinforcing Lloyd’s belief of the necessity of linking environment issues and politics, and her belief that the public needed to be informed and involved in environmental issues.

The second letter was from Donald Kennedy, Dean of the Stanford Summer Alumni College.  He encouraged Lloyd to educate people by holding a condensed version of Stanford’s “The Environment” summer session. 

The Marin Environmental Forum

             Lloyd took Kennedy’s suggestion and the spring of 1971 helped roll-out a 4 day seminar entitled “Land Use: Decision in the Making”. It was Lloyd’s way of paying back the Junior League for sending her to the Stanford seminar.  The conference was presented with the support of the Junior Leagues of Oakland, Palo Alto, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose. The reservation brochure set out the purposes of the conference.

                1) to study man’s use and misuse of the land, both past
                and present focusing on northern California

2) to provide the necessary background and education so individuals may effectively participate in the community efforts to bring about sound land use“

The speakers represented a wide range of views and included professor of Biology, Law and City Planning, naturalists, environmental activist (including the president of the Sierra Club), industry representatives (such as logging), a Senator, and other government representatives. 

Lloyd’s primary responsibility was to research and prepare a list of background reading materials.  She prepared a reading list and a schedule of classes to educate attendees on land use related environmental issues. The list included dozens of materials including books , article excerpts and congressional bills.

The success of this regional conference allowed for further such conferences in Marin, and led to the establishment of the Environmental Forum.  The Forum was very successful and quickly earned a prominent place in Marin’s environmental movement.  At the 10 year anniversary of the Forum, journalist Beth Ashley (in article published in the Marin Independent Journal, dated 6/10/83), noted that the Environmental Forum membership was “130 strong”.  Ashley referred to the dual purpose of the Forum, “rigorous basic education in Marin’s environment and its ecosystems” and “heavy-duty political” activism.  In the same article fellow Forum member Barbara Boucke describes Lloyd as the “statesman who created the Environmental Forum”.  The Forum, which is still active today provides a combination of two integrated courses of study – environmental and political.  The sessions include lectures and field trips to educate and motivate citizens to be active in local environmental issues.  2002 marked the 30^th anniversary of the forum, having trained over 700 women and men, including Lloyd’s husband and one of her daughters.

Marin Municipal Water Board

            From her work at the Forum and her contact with local government, Pamela decided to run for the Marin Municipal Water Board in 1974.  In 1976, an unaware Marin entered the most severe drought in over 100 years, Pamela Wright Lloyd was the first woman elected to the Marin Municipal Water Board – and became the first woman president.  Looking back on the experience, Lloyd says that even though a woman had never run for the MMWD board, which was dominated by male engineers, it never occurred to her that she could not be successful in the position.

             In the years Lloyd was on the board, Marin entered an epic drought, but Lloyd’s and the Board’s foresight and planning allowed Marin not only to survive, but thrive during the drought.  Marin’s success provided a model for other drought-endangered counties across the state.

In a presentation in her role as President of the MMWD in November 1976, Lloyd addressed the drought and told her audience that “public participation in resource planning and management is essential in today’s world.”  Her goal – public awareness.  After all, she said, “management of a community’s water supply is very much the community’s business.”  She warned that one problem was “there is no single public” and each population “has its own perspective, bias and particular interest – representing different and often conflicting public values.”  Undaunted, Lloyd spent her time at the MMWD listening to and working with these different factions in an effort to promote the necessity of water conservation and environmentally, economical sound water management.

During the drought years the MMWD needed to see a 25% reduction of overall water use.  This meant 40-50% reduction during the summer months – a daunting goal. With the pre-drought research and preparation, Lloyd, the MMWD and the people of Marin county met this difficult objective.  Lloyd made sure the process included deep research and unprecedented inclusion of the public “every step of the way.”

The following year, in the summer of 1977, Lloyd presented at a State Water Resources Control Board hearing.  She outlined how Marin was faring in its second year of a “very severe drought” and what needed to be done to plan for the worst – a third year which threatened to be as dry as the previous two.  Lloyd told the board that with the advance preparation and a “two-year learning curve”, Marin faced the impending 3^rd year of drought with “know-how, can-do confidence and ability to cope with a very serious water crisis situation.”  She credited the success during the worst drought in 100 years to a number of factors – “previous instituted plans and actions”, “truly generous, helping-and efforts of some 13 agencies”, and the “outstanding performance of.. the community”.  Again, Lloyd’s strong belief in including the community and educating them paid off.

She also made a bold request of the water mangers.  First, she acknowledged their frustration at the lost revenue due to the conservation effort.  Then she sternly told them that to allow revenue problems to be a consideration during the water shortage was “unconscionable” and that it would be “folly” to let “falling revenue problems dictate and an encouragement of increases water use”.  All parties involved need to think in terms of the future.

            Also in the 1970’s, Lloyd was instrumental in developing the nationally recognized, which continues 30 years later to provide real protection to Marin’s natural environment, as important revision and updates help enhance sensitive costal, wetland and watershed areas. Today, Lloyd says that holding the coastal area is still one of the most important causes in Marin.

Marin Conservation Corps

            In 1982, Lloyd helped establish the Marin Conservation Corps, a local community outreach program that, again, found its beginnings in Marin, but would spread across the county.  The MCC, which is stronger than ever today, provides vital environmental services while giving disadvantaged and at-risk youth valuable training.   Corps members learn about their environment, acquire a range of skills from recycling to park service work, and gain confidence from experiencing the satisfaction that comes from work with a purpose.  The MCC also offers members courses in resume writing and interview skills.  An MCC job coordinator follows “graduates” of the program for 2 years to make sure that if they need help, someone is looking out for them.  The program brings together “a diverse community of young people” and provides them with “meaningful opportunities”. This amazing program helps kids earn their high school diploma, their GED or college credit and currently helps over 200 kids reach their goals every year.

San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board

             In 1983, the governor appointed Lloyd to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.  With her background, it would seem that she would be viewed as a shoe in – but at the time the perception was that she had three strikes against her.  She was a woman, a Marinite and an environmentalist, for some in the water regulated community these were not the “right” credentials.  But at the end of her terms, she could proudly say she stuck to her environmental principles and gained the respect of even her fiercest opposition.  Overall, Lloyd has been called one of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board’s most respected and effective members.

Bay Vision 2020 Commission

             In 1989 Lloyd was asked to serve as a Vice Chair on the advisory board of the Bay Vision 2020 Commission.  The purpose of this commission was to look at the Greater Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Satan Clara, Solano and Sonoma) as a single entity and work together to plan future of the Greater Bay Area.  The group tackled issues such as managed growth, coordinated government, working together as an interdependent region for environmental, economic, functional and governmental purposes, population diversity and growth, affordable housing and homelessness, air quality and water supply issues.  The group also developed a set of values and goals that emphasized their commitment to the local environment, people and communities, managed growth and economic well-being. 

Looking Toward the Future

             Looking toward the future of Marin and California, Lloyd hopes that citizens will continue to be educated and involved in protecting the remaining open spaces.  For those who are discouraged by the possibility of failure, Lloyd provides a role model for taking action.  When asked if she ever embarked on a project she was afraid would fail, she answered, “ I never worried, but projects do fail”.  One project that some might at first glance consider a failure was her multi-year fight against the building of the Dry Creek-Russian River Warm Springs Dam.  After years of struggle, the dam was built.  But in the long run, the battle paid off.  The Warm Springs Dam was the last major dam built in California.

While still active in community service and environmental causes, Lloyd is now taking more time to enjoy her nine grandchildren and family.  In Pamela’s and her husband’s home, which was built by her father-in-law, one can see a reflection of this remarkable woman.  The home rests unobtrusively in the Mill Valley hills, with huge windows that blur the line between inside and out.  The beautifully natural setting, populated with California Redwoods seems in perfect harmony with the woman who has done so much for the county.  Her art and library illustrate her devotion to California and her commitment to the environment.

Lloyd’s power to inspire us lies in her unwavering commitment to the environment, social causes and her community; her thirst for knowledge and her generosity in sharing this knowledge with others; and her diplomatic ability to listen to, learn from and bring together people from different factions with different causes, for a common good.