Richard Cargill

Richard Cargill, M.A., is a pioneer in environmental activism. Through his course “Man in Harmony with Nature” and his sponsorship of “Students for a Better Environment,” he mentored hundreds of teenagers to make this planet a cleaner, greener, and less blighted place to live.

He and his students launched an all-school recycling program at Willowbrook High School. The recycling program was run entirely by students, and became a model for other schools in Illinois. Mr. Cargill was awarded the Green Leaf Award for Environmental Citizenship for the State of Illinois, recognized by Senator Paul Simon in the Congressional Record, and recognized with a commendation from Illinois Conservation Districts.

Mr. Cargill taught young people to have a deep caring for the earth and a passion for protecting it. He taught that each environmental problem is a call to action, and the collective voices of young people are always important and needed in making positive contributions to the world. After Mr. Cargill retired from teaching, he was honored with an induction into the Distinguished Service Hall of Fame at Willowbrook High School and Thornton Township High School.

Mr. Cargill retired in 1996 and moved to rural Boulder County Colorado—near Lyons and Hygiene. When he witnessed uncontrolled fugitive dust storms from the CEMEX cement plant, he organized a community group called the Watchdogs that turned up the heat on the regulatory agencies to take appropriate actions that would bring the plant into compliance with the Clean Air Act. The Boulder County Health Department created a task force to address the issues at the plant and invited the Watchdogs to participate. Ultimately, the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped up, filed law suits and levied fines on the plant for its failures to abide by good air pollution control practices. Today, there is cleaner air in the adjacent communities.

Mr. Cargill recently retired from the Board of Directors of Save our St. Vrain Valley (SOSVV), after decades of related volunteer work in the area. His work with the St. Vrain Watchdogs and SOSVV encompassed political, legal, and community action - we are all forever indebted to Mr. Cargill and the work he has done to preserve the biodiversity and integrity of the natural heritage along the St. Vrain River and its critical floodplain.