By: Skip Traynor
Media Relations Editor
Alma College awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during Honors Convocation, April 1. Kennedy is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper Program and a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law.
A pioneer in municipal and governmental responsibility, Kennedy is an impassioned and inspiring speaker who reminds us that we have an obligation to protect and preserve the environment for future generations. He is the co-author of The Riverkeepers, which details how he and John Cronin, a former commercial fisherman, took on corporate and government polluters to reclaim and protect the Hudson River in New York.
Earning a reputation as a resolute defender of the environment “whose message supercedes his golden name,” according to Successful Meetings magazine, Kennedy has prosecuted governments and corporations for water pollution; argued cases to expand citizens’ access to shorelines; and sued sewage treatment plants to comply with the Clean Water Act.
The New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and city watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development.
A graduate of Harvard University, Kennedy studied at the London School of Economics and received his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He received a master’s degree in environmental law from Pace University School of Law.
