""The University of Arizona in Tucson opened my eyes to stunning nature-pristine mountains, beautiful cactus, and the purest air I've ever seen," he says. And he's right. Skip and I-two Metro New Yorkers-met at the University of Arizona and traveled together back and forth through college as wide-eyed 20-year-olds, taking in along the way some of the finest national parks in America-Yellowstone, Montana's Glacier National Park, Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, and others."
"We slept in bedrolls under clear skies where one could see the Milky Way, looking as if someone had painted the sky with endless flecks of white. It was a life-changing experience for both of us. I went on to become a journalist; Skip to save the planet, starting in New York's Upper West Side. He brought back to his beloved New York a resilient desire for a far more purified air environment in the Big Apple."
George 'Skip' Pakenham began stuttering at age ten and developed an intense fear of speaking in class, even pleading with a teacher not to call on him. He grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, and later attended the University of Arizona, where exposure to pristine mountains, cactus, and pure air shaped his environmental values. During college he and a friend traveled to major national parks, sleeping under clear skies and the Milky Way. After returning to New York, Pakenham worked as an international mortgage advisor, photographer, and novelist, then focused on clean-air advocacy, partly motivated by his brother's stage-four lung cancer diagnosis.
Read at Psychology Today
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