Phillip Clapp, Pew & Formerly National Environmental Trust CEO, Dead At 54 - NYT

Philip E. Clapp, an early and vigorous voice in the movement raising concern about global climate change, died Wednesday while vacationing in the Netherlands. He was 54 and lived in Washington.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, his sister, Lisa Ingalls, said. Mr. Clapp’s influence was felt in the White House, on Capitol Hill and at international conferences and summit meetings on the environment.

For 14 years, he was president and chief executive of the National Environmental Trust, playing a significant role in lobbying for legislation, including amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996 and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006. He was a thorn in the side of both the Bush and Clinton administrations — once even calling Vice President Al Gore to task for what in his view was insufficient support for the top priorities of the environmental movement.

This year, his organization merged with the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit group that supports a wide range of public policy programs; Mr. Clapp became deputy managing director of the Pew Environment Group. With a staff of more than 90 scientists, lawyers and policy experts, the group promotes scientific understanding and policy measures to counter climate change and protect the wilderness.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/us/18clapp.html?_r=1&oref=slogin