A longtime member and leader of many environmental organizations, Jacob Hershey died on April 20, 2000, at age 87. A recent memorial service at his house looked like a meeting of the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, with a large number of old friends gathered to mourn his passing.

In addition to being a successful businessman, philanthropist, and outdoor sportsman, Hershey also served as a US appointed official in several capacities. His energy and gregarious nature won him many friends. At the memorial, his wife, Terry Hershey, showed visitors a large many-leaved red heart with messages to Jake from many women. She said, “Imagine that, he had 40 girl friends.”

Many knew him as an avid sailor, and also as a dancing fool who never missed a chance to dance into the wee hours. His daughter, Olive Hershey, describes him as a “man who didn’t have a shy bone in his body.”

A few days before his death, Jake was sitting with Olive behind the Hersheys’ house on Buffalo Bayou. She told me he stared off into the trees, waved his hand, and said “There’s so much going on, so much life.”

Among other things, he and his wife founded the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation, dedicated to the preservation and conservation of natural areas and the establishment of parks and care facilities for animals and birds. He was a strong supporter of the education programs of the Houston Museum of Natural Science and an incorporator of the Galveston Bay Foundation.

We will surely miss him.

David Crossley
CEC Board of Trustees