The David Ross Palmer Environmental Hero Award
This award is named for the late David Ross Palmer, founder and first president of the Friends (1995-2000), who was a champion of the environment, particularly Waquoit Bay watershed. The Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge, Inc. (FMNWR) initiated this award in honor of David in 2013 to community leaders who demonstrate outstanding dedication and excellent Stewardship & Conservation work within the Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge.
Born in Schenectady, New York May 26, 1928 into the Great Depression, he was the consummate self-made man, a true pioneer, romantic, and a legend of the glory days of Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith.
David served as a corporal paratrooper in the U.S. Airborne during the Korean War before earning an M.B.A. from NYU and an A.M.P. from Harvard. A successful financial expert, he was an executive with Merrill Lynch, later serving as the managing director of David Ross Palmer Consultants.
He founded and served on the boards of many charitable organizations after a distinguished career in finance. In 1997, David became President of Falmouth Associations Concerned with Estuaries and Salt Ponds (FACES), and he grew the organization to become a key player in the town’s quest to reverse the nitrogen overloading of its coastal estuaries. This was the beginning of the now well-known Massachusetts Estuaries Projects for Southeastern Massachusetts.
David went on to become the first Chairman of Falmouth’s Ashumet Plume Citizens Committee which recommended remediation action for Bournes Pond, Green Pond and Great Pond. In 2003 he stepped down from the presidency but remained as an active Director of FACES.
He was campaign director for the Greater Boston United Way. David also remained active in Amherst alumni affairs, serving as president of the Class of 1950.
He will be remembered fondly as a wise and loving father who led by example; a courageous leader, explorer, adventurer, sailor extraordinaire, and teacher/mentor to countless friends and relatives.
Recipients of The David Ross Palmer Environmental Hero Award:
2013: Mary Scanlan
2014: Beverly Kane
2017: Janice Walford
2019: Key founders of the Mashpee NWR (Chuckie Green, Ed Moses, Christine Gault, Mark Forest, Tom Fudala, Carl Melberg and Mary Varteresian)
2020: MaryKay Fox
2022: Katelyn Cadoret