The Hugh E. Cumming Environmental Quality Award is named in memory of the civic leader and president of Curtice-Burns Foods, who served for many years as a CEI Board member, treasurer and vice-president and as the first chair of CEI’s Environmental Quality Award Committee.
Each year the Award is presented to a deserving individual, group or organization that has made a significant contribution to environmental protection, improvement or education in the Rochester-Genesee-Finger Lakes region.
Selection Committee for the Cumming Award was chaired by Dr. James C. White, Cornell University, and included Dr. William Hallahan, Nazareth College, and Dr. Nabil Nasr, Rochester Institute of Technology.
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RICHARD A. MARX, left to right: Richard Marx, Jim White |
Richard Marx has contributed his professional expertise and passion for wildlife conservation for more than a decade of public service protecting local natural habitat. He was a co-founder of the Peregrine Falcon Project in Rochester and of the New York River Otter Project. He has donated his services on behalf of the Genesee Land Trust, has been an active participant in Earth Day activities to restore Land Trust properties, is a long-time volunteer for the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory and is a founder of New York Wild, dedicated to educating the public about wildlife, and of the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, dedicated to preservation and restoration of wetlands. He has demonstrated a long term commitment to putting ideas into action, spearheading their successful outreach, and attracting others to become engaged in wildlife conservation.
Nominated by Jean McCreary, Esq. , Partner, Nixon Peabody, LLP
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HUGH MITCHELL, left to right: Hugh Mitchell, Jim White |
Hugh Mitchell, now retired, has devoted his adult life to researching, promoting, defending, writing and educating the public to support the preservation of natural resources vital to the Rochester-Genesee-Finger Lakes Region. For decades he has been a voice in every major effort to protect the region’s environment, and a moving force in seeing that his efforts bring about action. From protecting Pinnacle Hills in Rochester, to preservation of the Hemlock-Canadice watershed, from saving Rochester neighborhoods in the face of proposed construction of the Genesee Expressway in the 70s, to revealing the connection between water distribution and development,( “Sprawl Follows the Pipes”), he has continued tirelessly to write opinion pieces in the local papers, meet with public officials, attend public forums, invite experts to speak at various gatherings, and ultimately make the voice of Upstate New York heard in Albany.
Nominated by Executive Committee, Rochester Regional Group of Sierra Club