[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 16, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO KELLEY GREEN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Frances M. ``Kelley'' Green, a citizen of Colorado, who dedicated her 
life to preserving and protecting Colorado's and the nation's 
environment and human rights. As a dedicated attorney, philanthropist 
and teacher, Kelley committed her life to social causes that improved 
the conditions of others and the greater community.
  A native of Georgia, Kelley graduated from Wellesley College and 
received her law degree from George Washington University Law School. 
Following law school, she clerked for U.S. District Judge Frank M. 
Johnson, a key jurist in civil rights cases in the '50s and '60s. As a 
child of the '60s, Kelley's passions became the focal point for her 
life of public service, and her vision propelled forward two 
environmental organizations that will shape the lives of Colorado's 
citizens for decades to come.
  Following law school and her judicial clerkship, Green practiced law 
at Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering in Washington, D.C. In 1976, she was 
tapped to serve as a member of President Carter's transition team and 
was appointed deputy assistant attorney general for the Carter 
Administration from 1977-1979.
  Colorado was lucky to gain Kelley as a permanent resident in 1982, 
when she moved to Boulder to work for the National Wildlife Foundation 
at the University of Colorado. In 1989, while running her own private 
practice, Green founded the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies, an 
environmental law and advocacy organization, dedicated to developing 
solutions tailored to the unique environment of the interior American 
West. The group strives to consider the economic, environmental, and 
cultural implications of all its actions and now has more than 20 
employees.
  In 1999, Kelley's passion for the long term sustainability of the 
Rocky Mountain West inspired her to create Earth Walk, an environmental 
science-learning program. Geared to low-income inner city children, 
Earth Walk's goal is to increase 9 to 12 year olds awareness of the 
world around them and inspire them to become environmentalists. With 
after school programs in Northeast Denver and a summer camp in Utah, 
Earth Walk is achieving its mission.
  Her personal philanthropy was demonstrated through the Green Fund, a 
private foundation supporting environmental projects, programs serving 
women and children and efforts to educate women in Afghanistan. She was 
also a distinguished board member of the Southern Poverty Law Center in 
Alabama.
  Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West will miss Frances Kelley Green, 
an outstanding woman who inspired us all to be advocates for 
environmental justice, to be passionate about our lives and the world 
we live in, and to act with wisdom and compassion about the future of 
our fragile environment.
  For the information of our colleagues, here is a copy of a news 
article on Kelly's passing:

                 [From the Denver Post, Sept. 9, 2003]

            Boulder Lawyer a True Friend of the Environment

                           (By Claire Martin)

       She was baptized Frances M. Green but was destined to be 
     Kelley Green, an environmental lawyer and advocate and a 
     philanthropist who made sure that her passion for the 
     environment endured beyond her lifetime.
       Kelley Green, 57, died of uterine cancer Aug. 25 in 
     Boulder.
       Green was 44 and a lawyer with a private practice in 
     Boulder when, in 1989, she founded the Boulder-based Land and 
     Water Fund, now known as Western Resource Advocates.
       ``As a lawyer, she handled these environmental cases, and 
     there was a real absence then of competent environmental 
     lawyers who were available to grassroots environmental 
     organizations--not only in Colorado but throughout the 
     interior West,'' said Bruce Driver, Western Resource 
     Advocates' executive director.
       Over the next 10 years, the organization became both a 
     resource for budget-challenged environmental groups and an 
     influential advocate of campaigns to protect natural 
     environments in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada 
     and Idaho.
       ``She was tenacious, very smart, and street-smart,'' Driver 
     said. ``She was the kind of person who could sidle into a 
     room and not say much for a while. But you could tell she'd 
     been listening, because she'd come out and say something that 
     kind of wrapped everything up in five sentences. She was 
     very, very intelligent.''
       Green graduated from Wellesley College and earned her law 
     degree in 1972 from George Washington University Law School, 
     where she was notes editor of the law review.
       After graduating, she worked as a clerk for U.S. District 
     Judge Frank M. Johnson, who made key decisions in civil-
     rights cases of the 1950s and '60s. She became a passionate 
     advocate of civil rights and served on the board of the 
     Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.
       She also was a member of the 1976 transition team for 
     President Carter and served as a deputy associate attorney 
     general in 1977-79.
       She never married. She threw her energy into the work she 
     saw as vocation and avocation. If she joined an organization 
     as a volunteer, not much time passed before she was helping 
     run things.
       Green first came to the Satyana Institute, a nonprofit 
     training and service organization in Boulder then known as 
     Shavano, to volunteer twice a week to file, handle the 
     accounting and other clerking tasks. She went on to become 
     the first chairwoman of the organization's board of 
     directors.
       Green invested her own money, along with her time, in the 
     causes she adopted. In 1997 she founded Denver-based Earth 
     Walk, an environmental education program offered to urban 
     fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students in classrooms and 
     wilderness camps. After she died, friends and associates 
     learned that she had also created The Green Fund, a private 
     philanthropic foundation that she used to anonymously donate 
     to environmental projects, women and children's 
     organizations, and to the education of women in Afghanistan.

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