Denis Hayes

Denis Hayes, taken while director of the Solar Energy Research Institute (1979-1981)

Denis Hayes (1944- ) is an environmental activist and proponent of solar power. He rose to prominence in 1970 as the coordinator for the first Earth Day.

Hayes founded the Earth Day Network and expanded it to more than 180 nations. During the Carter Administration, Hayes became head of the Solar Energy Research Institute (now known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory), but left this position when the Reagan administration cut funding for the program. Since 1992, Hayes has been president of the Bullitt Foundation in Washington and continues to be a leader in environmental and energy policy.

Hayes has received the national Jefferson Awards Medal for Outstanding Public Service as well as many other awards. Time Magazine named him as “Hero of the Planet” in 1999.

Early life and education

Denis Hayes was born in Wisconsin in 1944, but mainly raised in the small town of Camas, Washington, where in 2007 Hayes Freedom High School was named in his honor.^[1] His experiences growing up in the Pacific Northwest instilled a lifelong love of nature.^[2]

Hayes received his undergraduate degree in history from Stanford University,^[3] where he was president of the student body and an activist against the Vietnam War.^[4][5] During those years, he spent significant time backpacking to remote corners of the world.^[6] Hayes later enrolled at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.^[7]

Earth Day

He left Harvard after being selected by Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day.^[8] The first Earth Day (April 22, 1970) had participants and celebrants in two thousand colleges and universities, about ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities.^[9] It is believed that some 20 million demonstrators participated.^[10][11] In 2009, the story of Earth Day was told in the film Earth Days^[12] which closed that year's Sundance Film Festival.^[13]

Following the success of the first Earth Day, Hayes founded the Earth Day Network and served as international chairman for Earth Day's anniversaries in 1990^[14] and 2000.^[15] Internationally, he is recognized for expanding the Earth Day Network to more than 180 nations.^[16] It is now the world’s most widely observed secular holiday.^[17] Hayes continues to chair the board of the international Earth Day Network and is the Chair of the Earth Day 2010 Global Advisory Committee.^[18]

Career

During the Carter Administration, Hayes became head of the Solar Energy Research Institute (now known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory),^[19][20] but left this position when the Reagan administration cut funding for the program.^[21] Hayes went back to school and completed a Juris Doctor degree at Stanford Law School, and went on to become an adjunct professor of engineering in that university and litigator with law firm Cooley Godward.^[22]

Since 1992, Hayes has been president of the Bullitt Foundation^[23] in Seattle, Washington and continues to be a leader in environmental and energy policy.^[24][25][26] By mobilizing the resources of The Bullitt Foundation, Hayes intends to make the Pacific Northwest the best-educated, most environmentally aware, most progressive corner of America—a global model for sustainable development. Also in Seattle are Hayes' wife, Gail Boyer Hayes^[27] (daughter of Paul D. Boyer), and daughter, Lisa A. Hayes (a lawyer^[28] defending the Northshore United Church of Christ regarding Tent City 4 (King County, Washington).

Over Hayes' career, he has been a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center,^[29] a senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute,^[30] an adjunct professor of engineering at Stanford University, a Silicon Valley lawyer, and author.^[31] He has served on dozens of governing boards, including those of Stanford University, the World Resources Institute, the Federation of American Scientists, The Energy Foundation,^[32] Children Now, the National Programming Council for Public Television, the American Solar Energy Society, Greenpeace, CERES, and the Environmental Grantmakers Association.^[33][34]

Awards

Hayes has received the national Jefferson Awards Medal for Outstanding Public Service^[35] as well as the highest awards bestowed by the Sierra Club, The Humane Society of the United States, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Council of America,^[36] the Global Environmental Facility of the World Bank [3], the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and the American Solar Energy Society.^[37] Time Magazine has named him as “Hero of the Planet.”^[38]

References

1. ^ We're growing, building and moving!
2. ^ Talking with Denis Hayes, president and CEO, Bullitt Foundation, Puget Sound Business Journal, April 20, 2007, http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/04/23/story17.html
3. ^ Stanford University
4. ^ Stanford University under siege, Palo Alto Online, April 13, 1994, http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news_features/centennial/1960SD.php
5. ^ Marking the day 40 years ago when the green revolution began, Idaho Statesman, April 18, 2010, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/18/92175/marking-the-day-40-years-ago-when.html?story_link=email_msg#ixzz0lrAIoluM
6. ^ Seattle Times, April 21, 2002, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2002/0421/cover.html
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ DENIS HAYES: Mr. Earth Day Gets Ready to Rumble, Time Magazine, April 26, 1999, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,990846,00.html?internalid=ACA
9. ^ History of Earth Day
10. ^ http://www.earthday.net/node/77
11. ^ http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/pests_09.html
12. ^ http://www.earthdaysmovie.com/
13. ^ [2]
14. ^ New York Times, April 22, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/22/us/earth-day-extravaganza-sheds-its-humble-roots.html?scp=2&sq=%22earth+day%22&st=nyt
15. ^ New York Times, April 23, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/23/us/peaceful-easy-feeling-imbues-30th-earth-day.html?scp=2&sq=%22earth+day%22&st=nyt
16. ^ New York Times, April 9, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/09/us/earth-day-goes-global-as-it-turns-30.html?pagewanted=1
17. ^ http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/People/denis_hayes.html
18. ^ Global Advisory Committee Members, http://www.scribd.com/doc/28285667/Earth-Day-2010-Global-Advisory-Committee-List
19. ^ National Renewable Energy Laboratory History, http://www.nrel.gov/overview/
20. ^ NREL News Feature, April 19, 2010, First Earth Day Organizer Bullish on Renewables, http://www.nrel.gov/features/20100419_earthday.html
21. ^ Seattle Post Intelligencer, April 21, 2002, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2002/0421/cover.html
22. ^ Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1985, http://articles.latimes.com/1985-05-30/news/vw-5260_1_environmental-movement
23. ^ Bullitt Foundation website, http://www.bullitt.org/who-we-are/staff
24. ^ Climate Solutions: Charting a Bold Course, Yale Environment 360 Journal, June 10, 2008, http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2026
25. ^ The Rumpus Interview with Earth Day Organizer Denis Hayes, The Rumpus, April 22, 2009, http://therumpus.net/2009/04/the-rumpus-interview-with-denis-hayes/
26. ^ ACORE, American Council on Renewable Energy, http://www.acore.org/about/governance/advisory/Denis_Hayes
27. ^ Author of Solar Access Law, http://www.amazon.com/Gail-Boyer-Hayes/e/B001K8SEFO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
28. ^ http://www.rafelmanville.com/whoweare/lisa.htm
29. ^ Woodrow Wilson Center website, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/
30. ^ World Watch Institute Website, http://www.worldwatch.org/
31. ^ Rays of Hope (1977) and The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair (2000),http://www.amazon.com/Denis-Hayes/e/B001H6WFSQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1271961064&sr=1-1
32. ^ http://www.ef.org/home.cfm
33. ^ http://www.ega.org/
34. ^ Denis Hayes biography, http://www.earthday.net/hayes
35. ^ The Jefferson Awards are a prestigious national recognition system honoring community and public service in America. They began in 1972 to create a Nobel Prize for public service. http://www.jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national
36. ^ http://www.aeispeakers.com/speakerbio.php?SpeakerID=1851
37. ^ Denis Hayes Biography from Natural Resources Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org/reference/profiles/prohayes.asp
38. ^ Time Magazine, April 21, 1999, http://www.time.com/time/reports/environment/heroes/heroesgallery/0,2967,hayes,00.html

External links

• Camas School District and Hayes Freedom High School
• Which modern enviro concepts are throwbacks to the past? Four experts discuss the technologies, laws, and states of mind that have their roots in the first wave of the environmental movement. Interview in Seed (magazine) 2009.

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Name	Hayes, Denis
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Date of birth	1944
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