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Dr. Bob Ragland, Champion of the Environment

13, 2008

Dr. Bob Ragland, a long-time environmental activist, and one of the founders of our Northeast Florida Group of the Sierra Club, was honored at the 16th Annual Mayor's Environmental Luncheon on June 13, 2008.

Dr. Ragland, a retired pediatrician and child psychiatrist, has fought for environmental and social justice issues throughout his life. His involvement in the Sierra Club was the result of local and state governments' grab at land he owned, protected, and nurtured on the Westside.

Many Jacksonville features have been shaped by Dr. Ragland's hands. Talbot Island State Parks were fostered by the Sierra Club collaborating with others caring for its future; JEA heard from Dr. Ragland as it does today from his successors leading the local Sierra Club; he testified at wilderness hearings for Chassahowitzka and St. Marks; he fought against a floating nuclear power plant proposed offshore of the First Coast. In 1999, he was honored with the Mimi and Lee Adams Environmental Award.

In his forthcoming book, Dr. Ragland states, “We must balance community rights against individual rights, become other-oriented, learn to know, respect, care for, and take responsibility for our neighbor species and the world on a par with our own family. We must meet with others, engage in active dialogue without expressing discordant anger and we must deal with that anger of ours and of others. We must become selfless, non-violent and again – forgiving. We must give up outdated beliefs and attitudes; learn appropriate, relevant thinking and action. The alternative is unacceptable and unthinkable.”