TRAVERSE CITY – When John Nelson worked as the first Grand Traverse Baykeeper, he walked every mile of the shoreline. He would look for problems with erosion, how development was having an impact, and ponder what could be done to protect the lakes.
“He was very passionate about the bay,” said Michael Foley, chairperson of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council. “He was knowledgeable, respected, and a calm force for the protection of the environment.”
Nelson died at the age of 83 last Wednesday of complications from Parkinson’s. He had faced declining health for the past several years, but he remained positive, according to his wife of 33 years, Lynne Moon.
“We can’t choose when we go, and he was so positive about this illness. He hardly would talk about it,” said Moon.
Nelson’s family has lived in the Leelanau County region for five generations. After earning a master’s degree in science education from the University of Michigan, Nelson spent five active years in the U.S. Navy, serving as a Navy navigator during the Vietnam War, and an additional 15 years in the Naval Air Reserve while teaching in Maine.
But he couldn’t forget the bay he grew up on and returned to Traverse City in 1997.
He served on the Grand Traverse County Road Commission, and on the Garfield Township Board, but he is best known for his environmental activism in northern Michigan.
For 13 years, he worked as the Grand Traverse Baykeeper until he retired in 2015. In that position, Nelson was a staunch advocate for protecting the Grand Traverse Bay watershed and the Great Lakes, which have an estimated 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.
“Everybody in the watershed is as much a ‘baykeeper’ as I am,” Nelson said at his retirement. “They understand that the water is the reason they live here and 99.9 percent of them do the right thing.”
After retirement, Nelson remained active with a wide range of environmental issues. He fought the development of Line 5 between the Lower and Upper Peninsula. He also opposed the building of the Hartman Hammond bridge for fear the development would harm the local environment.
Moon said her husband never shrank from controversial issues, but rather faced them head-on.
After his military service, he was an active member of Veterans for Peace and opposed the Vietnam War.
Once settling back home in the Traverse City area, he set his sights on environmental issues. “He wasn’t afraid because he said it just didn’t come out of [his] mouth; it came out of weeks of research. It came out of experiences,” she recalled.
According to Moon, it was Nelson’s character that made him stand out. “I think his legacy was being kind and gentle and hoping to keep our waters clean, our trees in good shape and our city green. He was very much an environmentalist.”
Nelson’s co-workers say he was constantly driven by his love for Grand Traverse Bay.
“He loved nature in general, but particularly Grand Traverse Bay had a very special place for him. You could feel that. He was so calm and methodical when talking about what was needed to protect the bay,” Foley said. “He wanted to make sure it was there for generations to come. He was from a different generation; that kind of bigger-than-life generation.
“He was such an inspiration.”
The family is planning a celebration of life in the spring so that family and friends can attend the service.