Brent Blackwelder - Distinguished Alumnus

By Geoffrey Firman
 
 

Dr. Brent Blackwelder

Philosophy students the world over are used to having to deal with the incredulous question, "So, what are you going to do with a degree in that?" With the market ethos firmly in place today, few even attempt a response which does not take vocational training to be the sole point of education. But once in a while, you hear about someone who seems to embody all the good aspects of philosophy, who has been eminently successful outside the academy with a background in philosophy, someone who puts beyond question the value of a philosophical education.

Dr. Brent Blackwelder is one remarkable such person. Dr.Blackwelder received his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Maryland in 1975. Since then, he has become a major force in environmentalism in Washington DC, the United States, and, indeed, around the world. His entry in Who's Who in America lists a slew of environmental organizations of which he has been a board member, chairman, and even founder. Dr.Blackwelder is currently President of Friends of the Earth - one of the best-known international environmental groups. In recognition of these "contributions of national significance", Dr.Blackwelder has been awarded the inaugural College of Arts and Humanities Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Members of both the academic and business communities have the highest respect for Dr.Blackwelder, showing he finds a truly Aristotelian balance of business success and personal integrity. Herman Daly, a former official at the World Bank, now professor in UMCP’s School of Public Affairs, wrote that even "those colleagues at the Bank who were rather anti-environmental in their orientation learned to respect Brent for the honesty, cogency, and factual solidity of his positions." In its letter of nomination for the Distinguished Alumni Award, the Philosophy Department wrote that what Dr. Blackwelder has acheived "is far different and less common than a climb up the corporate ladder, a contribution to scholarship, or performances in the athletics or the arts, though these have their own distinctions. The accomplishments and rewards of his career have had as their beneficiary the entire world - the planet, the environment, and the living occupants - and not just the world at the moment but the world as it will develop through the centuries to come. For anyone to have such ambitions, and then actually do something about them, strikes [the Department] as breathtaking. And for such a person to be motivated throughout not by his own welfare but by that of the world itself we find admirable."

Dr.Blackwelder does not restrict his influence to the upper echelons of power - he reaches the public through being constantly in the media. Included in his nomination for the award were recent articles in the Washington Post and USA Today, and article co-written with Jesse Jackson Jr., and extracts from the websites of Friends of the Earth and the Committee of 100 for Tibet. He has also appeared on NBC, ABC, CNN, and BBC news programs.

In his acceptance speech at the Second Annual Alumni Awards Gala, on April 21, Dr.Blackwelder said, "my training here at Maryland, especially in the disciplines of ethics and logic, inspired me - perhaps a naïve moment of optimism - to bring this expertise to bear on Congress. Since the Congress is characterized both by pork barreling and muddled thinking, surely it could benefit from a dose of logical thinking and sound moral reasoning. Thus I began three decades of work, helping to start environmental organizations and trying to convince elected officials that protecting the health of our planet should be accorded the highest priority."