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Mary Beth Doyle
1961-2004

State of Michigan
Special Tribute

February/March Issue, 2006

The State of Michigan formally recognized the life and work of Mary Beth Doyle with a “Special Tribute,” enacted by the Ninety-Second Legislature and signed by the Governor. State Senator Liz Brater presented the proclamation at the memorial service on November 17.

LET IT BE KNOWN, That Mary Beth Doyle was widely recognized as one of Michigan’s most prominent environmental advocates. Her professional career included positions with the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and the Ecology Center, where she worked for the past 12 years, most recently as its Environmental Health Campaign Director. She died on November 13, 2004, from injuries in a tragic car accident, at the much too early age of 43.

She worked with dozens of local communities throughout Michigan to conquer toxic pollution. She was a leader of a successful campaign to close air-polluting incinerators in Hamtramck and at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. In Romulus, she helped the local residents fight a toxic waste injection well. She was a leader of the Detroit-based Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition.

Mary Beth was a strong voice for better environmental health protections in Michigan. She worked recently to enact legislation to ban brominated flame retardants. She helped organize numerous legislative briefings on clean production and chemicals policy, and was instrumental in the state environmental community’s development of the Don’t Trash Michigan campaign, which won passage of legislation to reduce landfilling of waste.

In 1995, Mary Beth helped organize one of the country’s first conferences on endocrine disrupting chemicals. In 1999, she persuaded the first retailer in the country to stop selling children’s chew toys made from toxic polyvinyl chloride. Recently, she helped organize a major conference on the connection between learning disabilities in children and environmental pollution. She was working with the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to form an environmental health committee in Michigan. She worked with health groups, including the Endometriosis Association, the Learning Disabilities Association, and the Breast Cancer Fund, on the environmental causes of disability and illness.

She was a leader in countless national and international coalitions as well as many local, grassroots efforts, all protecting people from toxic substances. She recently worked on a nationwide campaign to test the dust of homes and offices to demonstrate the toxic components of everyday consumer goods and to campaign for safer products. She worked on campaigns across the country with communities fighting incinerators, and she worked on a nationwide campaign to develop uniform standards for alternative treatment technologies.

She is widely known and respected by policy makers and regulators in Michigan, as well as activists and community leaders throughout the country. At the same time, she never took anything or anyone too seriously, and occasionally performed as a giant raindrop in skits done in area schools to teach kids about water quality and conservation. Mary Beth is known for her contagious, positive, dynamic personality. She counted as friends musicians, artisans, professionals, and regular folks of every persuasion. She enjoyed kayaking, cross country skiing, swing, tap, and rock-and-roll dancing, cribbage, and gardening. We mourn her premature loss, while we celebrate her many accomplishments. She left the world a better place.

IN SPECIAL TRIBUTE, Therefore, This document is signed and dedicated to honor and celebrate the life of Mary Beth Doyle. May her family know of our admiration and love for this remarkable woman.

Jennifer M. Granholm, Governor
Elizabeth S. Brater, State Senator, The Eighteenth District
Chris Kolb, State Representative, The Fifty-Third District

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