April 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 74

NRPA Update

Henry L. Diamond - an Appreciation
By Richard J. Dolesh

H

Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center

enry Diamond, one of the most influential Americans for the cause
of parks, recreation and conservation during the past 50 years,
died recently, but his remarkable legacy lives on. Close friend Pat
Noonan, chair emeritus of The Conservation Fund, said of Henry,
" In my mind, he helped build the framework for the parks movement we have
in America today. "

Henry Louis Diamond (19322016) became an advocate for parks
and conservation in his earliest days.
Upon graduation from Georgetown's
National Law Center in the 1960s,
he began work on Capitol Hill and
played an important role in editing the
final report of the Outdoor Resources Review Commission (ORRC),
chaired by Laurence S. Rockefeller,
the first president of NRPA. This
seminal report is widely credited as
forming the foundation for a range
of national legislation including the
Land and Water Conservation Fund
(LWCF), the Wilderness Act and the
designation of a national system of
Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Early in his career, Henry was
named as the first commissioner of
the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation (DEC)
by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
His 533-mile bicycle ride across New
York State promoted a $1.2 billion
72	 Parks & Recreation

bond issue to protect the state's water
and air quality and to acquire public
lands. He later went into private law
practice and the firm he helped establish, Beveridge and Diamond, became
one of the foremost national law firms
for the practice of environmental and
natural resources law.
Paul Hagen, a law partner of Henry
for more than 25 years, said one of the
reasons his colleague was so effective
in advancing the cause of parks and
conservation was that he was an extremely good listener and was always
respectful of others' opinions. " Henry
was old school. He was rarely the first
to speak, but when he did, he always
tried to bring diverse opinions together for the common good.
" Henry realized, perhaps better than
anyone, that people wanted to connect
to the outdoors through recreation. He
was expansive in his view of what outdoor recreation meant to the American
people. He was keenly aware that the
connections to people and our thinking
about outdoor recreation needed to be
as broad as possible. "
" He was extremely effective on the
Hill, " Noonan said. " Henry had the
passion, but he also had the experience
and knowledge of how to operate in
the political world, as well as in a legal
frame of reference. Above all, " Noonan
continued, " he believed that cooperation built support, not fragmentation. "

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Barbara Tulipane, NRPA CEO,
said, " Henry was humble and quiet, but he was incredibly effective.
His experience, his knowledge and
his consensus-building approach
brought people together for a larger
purpose. He truly was an advocate
for parks at all levels. "
Henry worked tirelessly for conservation and parks, not just at the
national level, but also for state and
local parks, and he was one of the
strongest advocates for funding the
state and local side of LWCF. He
served on more than 30 boards and
commissions and was the recipient of numerous awards including
the Secretary of Interior's Lifetime
Conservation Achievement Award,
the highest civilian award of the Department of the Interior; the Pugsley
Medal of the American Academy for
Park and Recreation Administration;
and the National Environmental
Achievement Award of the Environmental Law Institute.
Henry's greatest legacy, as is widely acknowledged by those who knew
him, was LWCF's long-lasting success. " His leadership on LWCF was
pivotal to its' success, " Noonan said.
" And he continued to work on LWCF
up to his final days, " Hagen added.
Parks, recreation and conservation in America would likely not
be what it is today without Henry
Diamond's influence. He was a remarkable man who leaves a legacy
of remarkable contributions to that
which we love.
Richard J. Dolesh is NRPA's Vice President of
Conservation and Parks (rdolesh@nrpa.org)
April 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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