Although Don is quick to say he’s not technically a marine educator, his service to the Gulf of Maine Marine Education Association and the National Marine Education Association over the past 14 years has had a major impact on the viability and energy of both organizations. Don’s sound financial wisdom serving as Treasurer of both organizations was recognized with a NMEA President’s award at last year’s conference, and we draw on his knowledge and leadership in many other realms as well.

We wish you well in retirement, but trust you won’t retire from our organizations for quite a while!

Many thanks for all you do, and best wishes for a happy retirement!

I first met Don Hudson when I came to bring a carrot cake for our sons birthday to be included in the resupply for the Northeast Rivers kayaking trip last summer. Garth asked had I met Don? No, and I was brought down a hall into the doorway, and Don Hudson came out to say hello. I felt like this was a very special honor! Don was wearing a colorful flowered shirt and immediately made me feel so welcome. We talked about the Audubon Center at Hog Island. Don amazed me with his wise understanding of every aspect of every issue surrounding the subject. Then he said he was going to take the resupply up to ?? lake tomorrow morning (4:30 AM) and took the carrot cake to the kitchen to put in the fridge overnight! I felt like I was in the presence of the coolest guy in the world! Thanks so much for you, DON

I was a 19 yr old Maine Reach IV student in the fall of 1976 when Don stopped by Chewonki Neck for a visit. The Maine Reach staff were all really happy to see him and he was around just long enough that weekend to infect all the students with his personal brand of 24 hr enthusiasm for the natural world! Later on, I remember his able leadership in the Maine Environmental Education Association. But most of all, I will always associate Don with Katahdin through all these years. He lived at Chimney Pond for an entire summer while studying a rare saxifrage. He has served on the committee that considers research proposals in Baxter State Park for over 2 decades, giving especially sound counsel on botanical studies. In the early ’90′s, Don joined forces with fellow ecologist Charlie Cogbill and together they conducted a detailed assessment of plant communities on Katahdin, providing a valuable baseline for the Park. Anyone who has ever had the good fortune to hike on Katahdin with Don has enjoyed a wonderful learning experience. I am sure he is personally responsible for introducing scores of young people and families to “the People’s Mountain”, with care, compassion and his unflappable good humor! I will always be grateful to Don for his generous contributions to the welfare and protection of Katahdin and his kindness to me and so many others through the years. I’m sure the upcoming years hold many more adventures. . . . see you in the Park, Don!

“Now, I’m about to play this guy’s call,”
he says, and I paraphrase,
“you’re going to hear it, I know it’s funny,
but nobody laugh.”
The Atlantic Puffin calls;
everybody laughs.

“You know,”
he says, and I paraphrase,
“when a former student of mine sends me a note,
‘Hey! I just identified a such-and-such!’
that just makes my day.
Even if it’s a terrible one,
that picks me right up.”
So,
this is for you, Don:
the other night
on the beach
a Laughing Gull was laughing at me.
A few months ago
I went on a hike
to the familiar call of the nuthatch.
(Both Red- and White-breasted.)
European starlings
squeak at me on my walk to school.
I saw a bird in a bush on a run;
its colors blended, just so,
it looked almost silky:
Cedar Waxwing.
I heard a White-throated Sparrow sing,
and all I heard was
“Oh sweet Canada, Canada, Canada.”
And this morning,
Don,
this morning,
I heard a knocking on a dead tree,
and I knew it wasn’t just any woodpecker;
the sound fell away
like a bouncing marble;
it wasn’t just any woodpecker,
it was Pileated.

This is a story about how Don and Chewonki came to my rescue when I was 18 years old. My first year of college was pretty much a disaster. Our father had died a few years before, and I was a sad, lonely, and confused young soul. All year long Don came down from Maine at intervals to visit; in the Fall to buy me my first down sleeping bag at “Crazy Charlie’s” in Watertown. It was and still is fabulous, purple on the outside, rust on the inside. My girls still can’t believe how cool it is! And he took me to music venues and Indian restaurants with his friends, things that I would never have done on my own.

By springtime, when it was clear that returning to college the next year was not a good idea. I began to explore the possibility of attending Maine Reach II as a year off from college.From this distance I am filled with appreciation that Don, just one year into being a staff member of that program, greeted the idea with open enthusiasm. My year at Maine Reach gave me room to breathe and room to grow into some small independence. It saved my life…

My favorite memory from that year was waking up very early on a late fall morning, in a tent I was sharing with Don right beyond the shore of Russell Pond, and hearing two moose calling to each other. I crawled out and followed the sound. There, perched on a big boulder near the water, was my brother trading moose calls with a very large female moose! Besides a bit goofy now and then, Don is wise, brave, compassionate, curious, and amazingly inventive. No one can say that life is dull when Don’s around!

I offer heartfelt thanks for all the remarkable ways that Don’s vision helped Chewonki to become the remarkable organization it is today, particularly as a place where girls and young women can grow and thrive. Its with great pride that I count myself among that lucky tribe of Chewonki women and girls.

I am pretty old now and my memory isn’t accurate, but, I think I first met Don about 1990?
I was so surprised to have my unannounced arrival so well and happily treated by Don. I recall a noon luncheon at which a Maine State Environmental officer gave a little talk. I of coursed learned much by that visit. But above all I recall with gratefulness of the quick and easy hospitality of Don. I think this is his style in life — for which all of us have delighted in. Hats off to Don and BON VOYAGE!! Paul in Brunswick

It is no doubt, a uniform gratitude we raise here for the stillness, generosity, and brillance brought to our lives by Don’s teaching and integrity. The bird calls, tide pools, trees, and critters that I still recall 20 years later serve largely to connect these days, though currently far and aloof from the Neck, to that vital gestational period to the importance of place. It was in these practical lessons that Don gifted us all with a practical commodity with which to describe the places we live, and our acquired respect for the fragility of this world. What pierces me most about Don’s teaching is a deep understanding of truth, one relevant and sustaining, and from our “Lao Tzu of the Neck” we are gifted wisdom and compassion, reverberant aphorism, and joyous honesty. Though obligation, schedule, and distance prevent me from joining the grand celebration on June 5, I send thoughts and prayers on the back of every Eastern Bound heron, osprey, and eagle from here in our peaceful, shining valley for an unaparalled and worthy event. Fly swiftly friends, fly!

(8)
The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
No fight: No blame.
-Lao Tzu

During the 1976 Mistassini Trip I was a 17 year old kid/camper, with both Don, and Dave Barrington as trip leaders. The night of July 4th the three of us were sitting around a wanagan. It was dusk, on a high sandy cut bank above the Temiscamie River. We were playing cards, sipping hot tea through our head nets, and chatting before retiring to the tents. In short, both Don and Dave asked me if I’d ever thought of giving back to Chewonki, after having been a camper there for four summers. They convinced me that I could be hired by the camp the next summer, and earn some money while continuing to paddle and hike. I was thrilled to learn that I could make money doing what I loved. The next five summers were spent as a counselor/ trip leader for the camp. The chance I was given to teach for the camp, eventually caused me to change my educational path from bio-premed, to science education.
——This change in career path has never been regretted. I have taught here in northern VT since 1982. I am still a high school science teacher, and also teach for Community College of Vermont. I am a founding member and president of a nonprofit group called the Missisquoi River Basin Association which is dedicated to the restoration and protection of the Missisquoi River. We are also seeking national Wild and Scenic designation for a part of the river. If not for that night on the Temiscamie, and Don and Dave assuring me that I could return and contribute to Chewonki, I would not be an educator, but would have continued on the path of a career into medicine. Thanks for a great nudge in the right direction. John Little

I arrived on Chewonki Neck in March to teach environmental education. I had been to Maine once prior to that (to interview). I really had no idea what I was in for, but I had great expectations for myself and this new place. My draw to Chewonki originally was to follow in the footsteps of Roger Tory Peterson. If he could sow his seeds as a naturalist in this place, then here too would my education continue. I soon recognized that there were plenty of great naturalists at this place to learn from. Foremost and steering the ship was Don Hudson.

I often recall a conversation I had with Don on morning bird walk. I have always had difficulty with the song of the American redstart and I had asked Don if he had any pointers. Don pointed out several things that remind him of the tsee, tsee, tsee, tsee, tsway song. Honestly, I cant remember what those pointers are. These tips really did not take root then either, but something else did. As I continued to ask Don, “Now what is that one?” his reply was generally a redstart. Don could read the frustration on my face. He said to me, “Even if you don’t know that it is a redstart, it will still be a redstart.”

At the time, I thought of that statement as some kind of Dr. Hudson mumbo jumbo designed to make a young birder feel better. Then why did I keep thinking about it. For years! I finally figured it out years later in graduate school. The same words came out of my mouth to an undergraduate novice birdwatcher. “Even if you don’t know it is an indigo bunting, it is still an indigo bunting.”

What I finally grasped is that Don really meant what he said at face value. Whether we fully understand and catalog the natural world is not what is of importance. Wildlife have inherent value even if we cant put a label on the creature of interest. Yet we are still better for the experience of seeking the knowledge of what the critter is. It is just a bonus if we actually get an answer out of the journey.

I am still stumped every spring by redstart song in the woods around my house, but a wide grin hits my face every time I hear it and I revel in the fact that I dont know. It is for that appreciation of the journey of seeking answers that I will always be grateful to Don for.