Robert Cahn

Background

Robert Cahn was born on March 9, 1917, in Seattle, Washington, United States, to Adolph Cahen and Edna (May) Cahen.

Education

Cahn obtained his bachelor's degree at the University of Washington, in 1939.

In 1970 he earned an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Allegheny College.

Career

Early in his career, Cahn worked as a reporter for the Seattle Star beginning in 1939.

After serving in the Army during World War II, he took a reporting position with the Pasadena Star-News. Stints at Life, Collier's, and the Saturday Evening Post followed.

In 1963 he joined the U.S. Information Agency as a White House reporter before accepting a position as a correspondent with the Christian Science Monitor in 1965. Subsequent positions included writer in residence with the Conservation Foundation, Washington editor of Audubon Magazine, work with National Audubon Society, and contributing editor with National Parks Magazine.

He also taught courses on the environment at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Colorado.

His first book, Perle: My Story, was written with Perle Mesta in 1959. His later works included Footprints on the Planet: A Search for an Environmental Ethic, American Photographers and the National Parks (with Robert Glenn Ketchum), The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913-1933, and The Fight to Save Wild Alaska. He also edited An Environmental Agenda for the Future.

Achievements

• His environmental reporting earned him the Pulitzer Prize with a series called “Will Success Spoil the National Parks?”. The articles discussed the effects that overuse would have on the country’s parks system.
  
  Cahn also received a Bronze Star, when he served in the Army during World War II.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Perle:My Story 1959
  • Footprints on the Planet: a Search for an Environmental Ethic
  • American Photographers and The National Parks 1981
  • The Fight to Save Wild Alaska 1982

Membership

Cahn was a member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, the Commission on Research and Management Policy in the National Park System, the Coastal Zone Management Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Trust for Public Land executive board, the Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas of the World Conservation Union, and the Friends of the Earth executive board.

Connections

Cahn married Patricia Lovelady, on December 8, 1951.

Father:

Adolph Cahen

Mother:

Edna (May) Cahen

Wife:

Patricia Lovelady