Nathaniel Reed

Nathaniel Pryor "Nat" Reed (July 22, 1933 – July 11, 2018) was an American environmentalist and political aide. He also helped with the passage of the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the expansion of national parks and reserves.

President and CEO of Audubon, David Yarnold said, "Nat was a giant in conservation—that phrase is used a lot, but in Nat's case it's true." He was the son of Permelia Pryor and Joseph Verner Reed of Greenwich, Connecticut and Hobe Sound, Florida.

Reed was raised on a 125-acre estate in Greenwich, Connecticut and in Hobe Sound, Florida. There, he was a member of the fraternity St. Anthony Hall. Under his leadership, Florida's department became "one of the most aggressive and creative in the United States." Reed's family had accepted the oil stock in exchange for oil shale land in Colorado.

A challenge faced by Reed when joining the Nixon administration was the general tendency of other Republications to be against environmental regulations; Reed said, "I am totally convinced that there must be environmental Republicans and that our record is far better than our critics would have it." Although a supporter of President Ronald Reagan, Reed noted that, "They are attempting to turn the clock back to the pre- [Theodore] Roosevelt era, when everyone supposed natural resources were inexhaustible." 2005: Distinguished Friend, Florida Defenders of the Environment 2007: Distinguished Leader in Fish and Wildlife Conservation Award, University of Florida 2014, Champion of the Everglades Award, Arthur R. Marshall Foundation 2017, Dan F. Lufkin Prize for Environmental Leadership, Audubon

Personal life Reed had three brothers—they were a vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank, the owner of American Heritage magazine, and a cattle farmer in Maryland. She was from St. Louis and Greenwich and was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William B. Weaver Jr. of Quaker Ridge in Greenwich. They had three children: Adrien, Alita, and Nathaniel Jr. The family lived on Jupiter Island, Florida.

Reed was associated with many nonprofit organizations, including being chair of the Natural Resources Defense Council, vice-chair of The Nature Conservancy, vice-chair of Audubon, chair of the Crystal River Manatee Sanctuary Committee, and served on the board of the American Rivers, Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Florida Audubon Society, Hope Rural High School, the National Geographic Society, and Yellowstone National Park. He was also a founder, president, and chairman of 1000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit that watched growth. He also helped create and was CEO of the Everglades Foundation.

In 2018, Reed died in Quebec City, Canada at the age of 84 from a brain injury he received while fishing for salmon on the Grand Cascapédia River.