Russell W. Peterson - Later Career

Later Career

After leaving office, Nixon, impressed by Peterson's answers to Stans' questions, appointed Peterson as Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. Peterson served from 1973–1976, leading a taskforce on the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons and helping to shape environmental reviews as mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act. In November 1973, Peterson worked with then-Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller to establish the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans. Peterson served as the President of the National Audubon Society from 1979 to 1985, he fought Ronald Reagan's attempts to weaken environmental regulations, pushed the Society beyond its traditional remit into areas like energy policy, toxic waste and population control. He hired more scientists, started an environmental curriculum for school children and got Ted Turner to finance the TV series The World of Audubon, narrated by Robert Redford, amongst others.

"Every time something wonderful has happened when I was president and since then in the field of environmental quality in this country or on a global basis, Russ Peterson has been intimately involved in it."

Jimmy Carter, at the University of Delaware, 1993

A keen bird watcher, Peterson took up the hobby after taking his son to the Everglades in 1954 and identified over 1,000 birds during his life. In October 1996 he switched his party affiliation to the Democratic Party, after endorsing Democrats in presidential elections since 1988. The Russell W. Peterson Urban Wildlife Refuge, just outside Wilmington, has been named in his honor. Peterson also served as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College in 1985, Carleton College in 1986, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1987. He also served as President of the International Council for Bird Preservation, as a principal officer in three international environmental organisations, worked for the United Nations on various activities and as Chairman of the Center on the Long-Term Biological Consequences of Nuclear War, working with Carl Sagan, Paul Ehrlich and Peter Raven to employ scientists to inform world leaders of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

In 1982, Russell W. Peterson was honored to be selected as the Swedish-American of the year by the Vasa Order of American. In 1984 he was given the Robert Marshall Award by the Wilderness Society, in 1994 the National Wildlife Federation gave him the Conservationist of the Year award, in 1995, the League of Conservation Voters awarded him its lifetime achievement award and in 2007 he was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.

In April 2008, a small ship was rechristened "Russell W. Peterson." The ship, owned by Aqua Survey Inc. was used for the study of migratory bird routes. However, on May 12, 2008, the "Russell W. Peterson" was destroyed in a storm off the Delaware coast, killing one of its two crew members.

Peterson suffered a stroke on the morning of Monday, February 21, 2011 and died at 8:10pm that evening at his Centreville home. He was survived by his wife, four children, seventeen grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.