Mary P. Sinclair

Early life She was born Mary Jean Palcich, raised in Chisholm, Minnesota where she was high school valedictorian, then graduated from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Activism When Consumers Power announced their intentions to build the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in 1967, Mary Sinclair's background in nuclear fission technology prompted her to write a letter to the editor that questioned the safety of several elements of their plan.

She published the paper Nuclear Power and Public Concern in 1970. The document posed questions about nuclear power risks to government experts, scientists and academic scholars, and detailed their responses. She debated nuclear power safety with a Consumers Power Company vice president in 1974. Public Broadcasting Service carried the show nationally, and the transcript was printed in the Michigan Education Association's publication, Teacher’s Voice.

Cracks in the containment building's foundation and sinking caused the Midland Nuclear Power Project to be abandoned in 1984 and a fossil-fueled plant was built instead. Sinclair turned her attention back to the problem of nuclear waste disposal and the federal government's failure to provide a comprehensive solution to the nuclear waste problem over several decades. In late 1992, the New York Times identified Sinclair as being "at the forefront of a battle...around the country, as utilities seek to build casks to hold the spent fuel" Nuclear plants were constructing 100-ton concrete-and-steel storage containers to hold nuclear waste on the same property where the reactors were located and close to large bodies of water. Sinclair and her network of activists wrote letters opposing this practice. and authored numerous papers and articles.

Repercussions Dow Chemical is the largest employer in Midland, and her opposition to the high profile project considered important to Dow caused a backlash against Sinclair and her family. Their mailbox was blown up, they received threatening letters on their lawn, and were spat upon in public.

Higher education Sinclair continued her education at the University of Michigan earning a Master's degree, then taught and lectured on Energy and the Environment at UM from 1973 to 1978. She entered the Doctorate program in 1988.

Her story was told in Mary Joy Breton's 2000 book Women Pioneers for the Environment, and the Catholic Church honored Sinclair and Helen Casey for their commitment to peace and the environment as "Jubilee Women" in 2000.

Other organizations that have recognized her environmental work include her alma mater the College of St. Catherine, Women Lawyers of Michigan, the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, the American Ethical Union, and the Great Lakes Women’s Network Symposium on Women, Peace and the Environment.

Death Sinclair moved from Midland to Massachusetts in the late 2000s to be near her daughter, Rosemary. She died following a brief illness on January 14, 2011.