Edmund W. Stiles Award for Environmental Leadership
The Watershed Institute’s Edmund W. Stiles Award for Environmental Leadership is awarded to a community leader who demonstrates outstanding leadership, dedication, and passion in advancing the cause of environmental protection and stewardship. The award is presented in honor of the late Edmund W. (Ted) Stiles, Professor of Ecology at Rutgers University. Among numerous leadership roles, Ted served on the Watershed’s Board of Trustees from 1991-2004, as Board Chair from 1994-1997, and as a member of our Advisory Board until his passing.
Theodore (Ted) Chase, Jr., Franklin Township
Few individuals have dedicated more of their time to their community than Ted Chase. In a nearly 50-year run of volunteer service to Franklin Township, Ted has served on the town’s Zoning Board, which he joined in 1972, Planning Board, Environmental Commission, Open Space Committee, Green Team, Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, and Kingston Village Advisory Committee. Ted was elected Councilman in 2009 and has been re-elected to the position ever since.
Ted has also served as a loyal volunteer for The Watershed Institute, as a StreamWatch water quality monitor since 2005 and as a regular participant at our annual Stream Cleanup events since these annual events began in 2006. He’s served on the Boards of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and D&R Canal Watch.
Ted grew up in Dover, Mass., and in 1969 moved to Franklin Township to become a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers University’s School of Biological and Environmental Sciences (formerly Cook College at Rutgers University). He taught until 2007 and, although now retired, he still teaches a graduate course. He has been married to his wife, Victory, for more than 50 years. They have two children and two grandchildren.
Our guest speaker will be Stephen W. Pacala, a professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, climate change and systems ecology at Princeton University.
