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interviewed Bob Bendiner for a place on the Editorial Board -- late 60s or early 70s -- he told me he had been a C.P. [Communist Party] “card-carrying” member briefly before the war, but that he had resigned long, long ago -- before the war. He became a valued member of my staff. Roger Wilkins, our first black member on the editorial board, I'm sure he would have been a member of all kinds of organizations -- such as the ACLU -- although I don't ever remember discussing that with him. But I never really took as prominent a place in this type of organization as I did in several of the environmental ones.

And there's an award named for you, right?

Oh, NRDC.

You haven't told that on tape, yet.

That was a fund that was gotten together a few years ago, a fund raised by NRDC, with my reluctant sanction. They had asked me if I would head this thing. Not head the fund raising but head the idea of an annual award in environmental journalism. And the NRDC, who dreamed up this idea, asked me to put my name on it; that is, the John B. Oakes Award in Environmental Journalism, which is an annual award to American journalists -- newspaper, magazine -- who make an original contribution in investigative, environmental journalism. We did raise enough money to provide -- I didn't think it was possible, but --

[END TAPE TWO, SIDE ONE; BEGIN TAPE TWO, SIDE TWO]