A decade after I met Lee Moldaver in the offices of the Santa Barbara Independent, he asked me to serve as editor of the Santa Barbara Audubon Society’s bimonthly newsletter, El Tecolote. Novice birder that I was, editing El Tecolote sounded like a fun way to learn about birds while supporting Audubon’s mission. A few months into it, thanks to Lee’s legendary recruiting skills, I was up to my elbows in Santa Barbara Audubon’s history, compiling an abbreviated version for members to read in El Tecolote.
Lee helped arrange interviews with chapter founders Jan Hamber and the late Joy Parkinson, as well as with past presidents like Sally Walker, Ron Hirst, and Rob Lindsay. But never once did he point to his own contributions to the chapter, which, after 22 years on its board (30 years at the time of his death), including three terms as president, were prodigious and diffuse. It was from other boardmembers that I learned of the activist training workshops he arranged with Sally Walker in 1994, inviting environmentalists from all over the state to come here and impart their trade secrets. And that he lobbied his connections at National Audubon for Santa Barbara to be selected as the site of an Audubon-inspired pilot solid-waste recycling project. He succeeded. When the project got underway, Santa Barbara vaulted to the forefront of the nation in recycling innovation.
Right after taking over as the Audubon chapter president in 1993, Sally Walker drove with Lee, who was vice president, up to the Western Regional Audubon conference. They had never worked together before, and Walker knew that having a good relationship with Lee was going to be pivotal to her success as president. The trip put an end to every concern about how their collaboration would go.