Summer 2009
Member Profile
With Us from the Start
English professor. Single mother. Writer. Organic farmer. Grandmother. Drummer. Activist. Philanthropist. Elsie van Buren has played many roles, but one she has played the longest is Union of Concerned Scientists member. Elsie has supported UCS virtually since the beginning—for almost 40 years.
She was living in Cambridge, MA, during the late 1960s and recalls hearing about the founding of UCS across town at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the time she thought, “That sounds like a good outfit—one that will have clout in Washington.”
A Lifetime Commitment
Elsie had been opposed to nuclear weapons from an early age; her horrified reaction to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki later found expression in her concerns about nuclear energy. When optimism about nuclear energy’s potential was at its highest, Elsie wrote a letter of protest in 1955 to her congressional representative focusing on the problem of nuclear waste. By the time UCS came into being, she was eager to support a group that could speak to legislators about the dangers of nuclear weapons and energy with a more authoritative voice than her own.
Our expansion into food, energy, and climate issues has also mirrored Elsie’s passions. She has been ahead of the curve, for example, in embracing organic farming methods on her Hancock, NH, farm, installing solar panels for hot water and electricity, and supporting aggressive action to curb global warming.
Elsie observes that UCS has built tremendous credibility with the media and policy makers by being “right about everything over the years—often way ahead of its time. With the backing of top-ranked scientists and the tenacity to keep hammering away at the issues, UCS is so effective in Washington.”
