In the early 1990s, information about Rhode Island’s biodiversity was incomplete and hard to access. A committee was formed to consider the problem and recommended a new organization to encourage study of the state’s ecology and to coordinate people and information.
At that time, Margaret Lamb was a student in URI Professor Keith Killingbeck’s graduate seminar in plant ecology. From discussions among Peter August and others about forming a home-grown natural history organization in Rhode Island, Lamb caught drift of the excitement and decided that she wanted to help in some way.
Lamb went to her family’s foundation, called, not surprisingly, the Lamb Foundation, and convinced them to make a one-time grant of $50,000 to support activities of the soon-to-be Rhode Island Natural History Survey.
That grant was notionally to support the Survey’s initial foray into publishing, and it eventually contributed to publications covering marine algae and Rhode Island geology, and to the Biota of Rhode Island series covering vascular flora, vertebrates, and fungi; but because much of the first executive director’s work revolved around those books, it had the practical effect of launching the organization with paid staff.
The Rhode Island Natural History Survey Founders’ Award for Exceptional Service, which is just what it says it is. Margaret’s foresight and determination to assist in making the Rhode Island Natural History Survey a reality merits recognition and a repeated ‘thank you’ in the form of the Founders’ Award for Exceptional Service.