Friends of the Earth Mourns the Passing of Founding Board Member Richard Ottinger

Friends of the Earth mourns the passing of one of our founding board members, Richard Ottinger.  Dick, as he was known, was a close friend and ally of Friends of the Earth founder David Brower, and he worked alongside our organization throughout the critical decades when the foundations of modern environmental law were being laid.   After its founding, Friends of the Earth helped initiate the creation of Friends of the Earth International, which is comprised of Friends of the Earth member groups from more than 70 countries.  Dick was one of the environmental movement’s earliest and most consequential champions. He was 97 years old.

According to Erich Pica, current president of Friends of the Earth, “As a founding board member of Friends of the Earth United States, Dick helped catalyze a global movement of environmental organizations fighting to create a healthier and more just world.”

Long before environmental protection was politically fashionable, Dick Ottinger was fighting for it. Elected to Congress in 1964 representing Westchester County, New York, he made the health of the Hudson River his signature cause from his very first campaign — bringing lawsuits, sponsoring legislation, and helping force the Reagan administration to fund the removal of cancer-causing PCBs from the river. His leadership in the battle to stop Consolidated Edison’s Storm King Mountain hydroelectric project became a template for modern American environmental advocacy. He co-founded the Environmental and Energy Study Conference — the largest bipartisan caucus in Congress — and was a principal author of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, which opened energy markets to renewables decades before most policymakers understood why that mattered. When colleagues were still debating oil dependence, Dick was already championing solar energy and electric vehicles.

His commitment to the Earth did not end when he left Congress in 1985. He joined Pace University School of Law, founded the Pace Energy and Climate Center, and pioneered the first U.S. study of energy environmental externalities — work that fundamentally changed how regulators understood the true cost of fossil fuels. He was the only American professor ever invited to lecture at the International Renewable Energy Agency, and his scholarship shaped environmental legal frameworks around the world. He served as Dean of Pace Law School and spent decades training the next generation of environmental lawyers who carry his work forward today. Dick Ottinger’s life embodied the conviction that public service and love of the Earth are inseparable. At a moment when the environmental protections he helped build are under serious threat, his legacy reminds us what determined, principled advocacy can accomplish. Friends of the Earth extends our deepest condolences to his wife June, and to his children and grandchildren, and all who were fortunate enough to work alongside him. The movement he helped create will honor him best by continuing the fight.