Charles Eggert (b.c.1919)

He was a native New Yorker who was actively involved in several conservation movements in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Echo Park Dam controversy and the controversy over the proposed dams in the Grand Canyon. His two films (Danger River and A Canyon Voyage) were instrumental in the establishment of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. He became nationally recognized in 1955 when he made the Eggert-Hatch River Expedition that took him and six others on an epic 719-mile journey down the Green and Colorado Rivers resulting in the documentary, Danger River. He was a member of the Explorers Club and a Director of Motion Pictures for the National Parks Association. For his films on scenic conservation he was made an honorary life member of the Sierra Club - "the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States". He was married March 13, 1942, to Betty Blair, sister of water-skiing pioneer "Banana George". They lived at Maizefield, New York. Rescuing it from decay, they completed a major restoration that brought it back to its original splendor. In 1965, the Dutchess County Historical Society wrote: "Maizefield gives one the feeling of warmth and of gracious living, perhaps for the most part, because of the warmth of its present owners (the Eggerts)". They had two sons.