Wendy Judge Paulson

2017 Margaret Douglas Medal

In grateful recognition of a lifetime of service to conservation through education and preservation projects that celebrate our fragile and beautiful natural world.

Proposed by: Ridgefield Garden Club, Zone II

Wendy Judge Paulson has spent her life in service to conservation, educating young and old about our fragile environment and working to save endangered lands. As a schoolteacher in Boston, New York, DC, and Chicago, she instituted “The Nature Lady” program to enrich the school science curriculum, using local parks to teach kids about nature. At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Wendy helped develop citizen science programs, working with elementary and middle school students and teachers to engage young people both inside and outside the classroom. Through the Bobolink Foundation, Wendy has protected thousands of acres including Little St. Simons, Georgia’s 11,000-acre barrier island, where she annually hosts a summit of conservation-minded philanthropists. The 608-acre peninsula of Cannon’s Point on St. Simons Island was saved from development and nourishes thousands of migratory birds. She is a formidable force in the conservation world on a local, state, national, and international level.

The Margaret Douglas Medal is awarded for notable service to the cause of conservation education.

The Margaret Douglas Medal was endowed by Priscilla Sleeper Sterling (Mrs. Robert D. Sterling), Garden Club of Dublin and Monadnock Garden Club, both Zone I, to honor Margaret Bell Douglas (Mrs. Walter Douglas: 1890–1963), GCA member-at-large. The medal was designed by Art Deco sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan in 1952. A native of Canada, Margaret spent much of her adult life in the American Southwest and Mexico. She is credited with the introduction of the papaya crop to Mexico and she helped establish the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ. She was the recipient of the GCA’s Achievement Medal in 1954.

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