Environmental heroes and villains have been around long enough to compile quite a history. One of the heroes died July 31.
Since he was also one of the quietest of heroes, you may not know his name, but you certainly know his work.
Steve Sawyer has been my friend for 40 years. We missed the early, Book of Genesis days of Greenpeace by several years but met when we both showed up as Greenpeace volunteers in its fledgling East Coast outpost in Boston in late 1978.
I was mostly a house creature, helping the new office with fundraising, media, and other things that none of us had any experience with. Steve, on the other hand, did everything and, with few exceptions, did it all better than anyone else—politics, strategy, and, depending how you feel about Greenpeace, leading the way on either dynamic protests or drama queenery.
He was a laconic New Englander from rural Antrim, New Hampshire. He could lead a team or fix a creaky boat with the best of them. He could also crack a killer wry joke or bang out a superbly passable Eric Clapton or Mark Knopfler guitar riff. | 
