FAMOUS CONSERVATIONIST JIM FOWLER OUSTED FROM THE EXPLORERS CLUB Portland, ME [Monday, 8 July 2013]- In early July 2013, President Alan Nichols and the executive committee at The Explorers Club (NOT the board of directors) covertly ousted renowned Jim Fowler from his position of Honorary Chairman with breathtaking alacrity and mendaciousness. No factual explanation was provided. Not a word was shared with the Club’s honorary directors, its officers, its chapter chairpersons, and its 3,000 members worldwide until after the ambush. This act seems designed as an ongoing effort by the current leadership of The Explorers Club to remove all honest critics of the Club’s present direction, thereby turning it into a private preserve of mediocrity and cronyism that may lead ultimately to the demise of this august 109-year-old institution. As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom,” highlighting co-host Jim Fowler and his pioneering work with wildlife, President Nichols and his fellow executive committee members deliberately voted him out of his lifetime title, substituted 92-year-old Senator John Glenn, and then boasted in the hallways of Club headquarters in New York City (according to unconfirmed reports) that they were finally rid of Jim Fowler. Contrary to the spirit of the Club’s mission, their decision, and its timing, demonstrated the quintessence of poor judgment. For more than a century, The Explorers Club has made immeasurable contributions for the world at-large. Many school children can easily recite the relevance of such Club notables as Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey, Donald Johanson, Bob Ballard, Eugenie Clark, Sylvia Earle, George Schaller, and Neil - More - Armstrong. Founded in 1904 by a group of leading explorers, The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary, professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. For years, its honorary chairman was Sir Edmund Hillary who, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, reached the top of Mt. Everest in May 1953. Rather than the end of a daring story, their summit marked the beginning of a munificent legacy for the people of the Himalayas. When Sir Edmund died in 2008, the world lost Burra-Sahib (or “Big at Heart,” as the sherpas of Nepal called him), a hero for conservation of culture and nature in the mountainous regions of the world. Shortly afterward, the board of directors at The Explorers Club unanimously elected Jim Fowler, former co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, as its new Honorary Chairman, importantly, without term limits. At that point in January 2010 the membership sighed with relief and affirmation. Its most public advocate would once again be a brilliant, kind, and gentle individual universally respected for his work on behalf of exploration, conservation, and science education. Jim had already been Honorary President that, according to Club bylaws, is a one-year honorific for members “who have particularly distinguished themselves in the field of exploration and who have actively participated in the welfare and promotion of the Club.” Now, it was assumed, Jim would serve for life as a revered spokesperson for exploration to advance the Club’s mission and prestige worldwide. A leader among leaders. Then something implausibly ugly began to fester in the ranks of a new Club administration. Before, during, and after the 2012 Explorers Club Annual Dinner (ECAD) in New York City, members heard about unfounded attacks viewed as politically motivated toward Lorie Karnath, the Club’s second female president, leading to a disquieting change in administration. This was followed by a Sotheby’s appraisal of the Club’s inestimable collections of books, journals, maps, photographs, and artifacts; dismissals, including the chairwoman of the library and archives, a director and medalist, who objected to what appeared an attempted sale of Club holdings; the dishonorable awarding of a Club flag to a commercial entity that wanted to harvest and possibly sell artifacts from a protected shipwreck contrary to the standards at the time of the Club’s Flag and Honors Committee; the puzzling removal of Captain Alfred McLaren’s name from the list of the Club’s honorary directors (a distinguished arctic explorer, - More - President of the Club from 1996 to 2000, and staunch supporter of Lorie Karnath); odd goings-on with the Club’s Legacy Society; and then – in early July 2013 – the reprehensible, virtually overnight dismissal by the Club’s executive committee of Jim Fowler as the Honorary Chairman. In a somewhat conciliatory letter to Jim Fowler, President Alan Nichols implied that Jim had agreed to his termination and then to an advisory post for the President. Jim Fowler did neither. Like a circus act, the letter seemed a disingenuous sleight of hand to dupe a curious membership. For all the world, the political coup d’état underway at The Explorers Club appears nothing more, nothing less than a vacuous infiltration by moneyed adventurers pretending to be explorers. In this age of ecological crisis, wherein Earth is at risk for significant human-caused biodepletion, climate destabilization, and environmental degradation in the years to come, society at large needs – desperately – its explorers risking life and limb for their discoveries, not sitting around boardroom tables to malign the Jim Fowlers of the world. It simply cannot afford the esoteric distractions and circus-like absurdities of the current administration at The Explorers Club. In the best interests of that venerable society, and for the urgency of discovery that its scientists and explorers may provide the world at-large, members are now calling on the Club’s current executive committee to reinstate Jim Fowler as Honorary Chairman and then resign forthwith in toto. They believe that no other just and sustainable solution exists to restore The Explorers Club to its long-standing mission: to advance field research, scientific exploration, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 16:46:41 +0000
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