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By Patricia Filip In the early 1960s, they were Joe College and Betty Coed. Well, not quite, but they were finalists for the title of Joe College and Betty Coed at Oregon State. He was president of his senior class and fraternity. She was a humanities and social sciences senator. She was on Mortar Board and he in Blue Key. Not surprisingly they met in student government. And Dick Roy, ’61, and Jeanne Hawley, ’62, married. Their pursuit of the American dream continued after graduation, with Dick moving on to Stanford University to pick up a master’s degree in engineering and then to Harvard Law School and a partnership in Portland’s largest law firm. But in 1993, Dick gave up his hard-earned career and six-figure salary … to work for free to save the planet. He and Jeanne founded the Northwest Earth Institute, a nonprofit organization that helps motivate people to become better stewards of the earth. They both work at the Portland-based Northwest Earth Institute as unpaid volunteers — he as executive director and she as education director — and rely on savings and frugal living to support themselves. Dick said he realized he could either stay with the law firm and give his money to others to work for the environment or he could quit and give his time to the cause. The Northwest Earth Institute, which began with a $45,000 grant, one room office and a copy machine, has grown to include 11 Northwest chapters, a staff of 10 and a budget of $630,000. The Roys estimate 40,000 people have enrolled in discussion courses based on Northwest Earth Institute curriculum they developed. The classes, held in workplaces, churches, neighborhoods and community centers, focus on such themes as voluntary simplicity, deep ecology and sustainability. Jeanne and Dick, to put it in popular evangelical terms, "walk the talk" when it comes to sustainable living. They are such expert recyclers and canny shoppers, they average one bag of garbage a year. They drive a nine-year-old Honda only when they have no alternative to taking the bus. They rarely purchase anything new, although Jeanne said she did buy a new pair of shoes this year. "There’s so much used clothing out there that’s of amazingly high quality," she said. She makes bread, sauerkraut, and yogurt, buys locally grown produce, and shops only at meat counters that wrap meat in paper.| Dick calls his career shift "a change in passion" and likens the lifestyle change to "going from whole milk to skim milk." Roy admits that Jeanne led the way in the lifestyle choices. Having been raised by Depression-era parents, Jeanne said she has always pinched pennies. Her concern for the environment came later, when she first saw photographs of the earth taken from space. "We tend to think of the earth as infinite," she said, "When I saw the pictures I realized how fragile the earth really is." Recently, the Northwest Earth Institute has spun off the Oregon Natural Step Network, which helps businesses and other organizations develop processes that can offer cost savings as well as environmental advantages. More than 2,000 individuals and 700 organizations have participated in the Oregon Natural Step Network. Dick said the Natural Step Network is having an impact and cites the example of one of the participants, Nike, which is replacing inorganic solvents with water based chemicals in manufacturing shoes and has made a decision to switch to organic cotton over time. Jeanne has been involved in developing recycling programs and recently began a home "eco-party" program that provides tips on sustainable living. The Roys have been featured in two PBS documentaries, three books, and numerous newspaper articles and radio shows. In June they were presented the George Russill Service Award by the Oregon Community Foundation. The award is given annually to an individual who has demonstrated a history of exceptional voluntary service to improve the community. They were the first couple to be given the award. And that is fitting. Forty years after the Roys began working together in student government, they’re still working in tandem, striving to make a difference. OSU |
