fbpx

Gary Allen Cunningham Conservation Award

About the award

For half a century, Gary Cunningham led the way for conservation in the Puget Sound region. In 1969, Gary was a founding member of Hood Canal Environmental Council, and served on the board of this all-volunteer group for 48 years. In 1989, Gary founded Kitsap Land Trust, one of the four all-volunteer land trusts that merged to form Great Peninsula Conservancy in 2000. Gary led the merger with the goal of pooling resources to hire staff and to ensure the sustainability of the organization. In addition to serving as GPC’s first President, Gary also served terms as Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and additionally, as a pro bono attorney for GPC for 15 years. Assisting in everything from real estate transactions, to negotiating and preparing conservation easements, it is impossible to tell the story of GPC without Gary as a key player. In addition to his gifts of time and creative vision, Gary and his wife Marilyn have also made significant financial contributions to GPC over many years. Despite his battle with ALS, Gary continued to serve GPC as a member of the Conservation Committee until his passing in the summer of 2020.

2025 Award Recipients

Celia and Gary Parrott 

Celia and Gary founded the Hood Canal Land Trust in 1985, one of only two land trusts on the peninsula at the time and a driving force for creating others. Their anchor preserve, now called the Klingel-Bryan-Beard Wildlife Refuge, is GPC’s longest-owned property and the site of our first large-scale restoration project.  In 2014, the Parrotts donated a conservation easement on their 6-acre property to GPC, closing one of the final gaps of conserved shoreline along the Union River estuary. Today, an amazing 650 acres and 5.5 miles of shoreline have been conserved here by Great Peninsula Conservancy and many partners. Celia and Gary retired to the beautiful Sandhills of Nebraska over a decade ago and Gary passed away in 2021. Even from afar, Celia remains an active supporter of Great Peninsula Conservancy, and we are always pleased when she comes back to visit.  

Patricia Lantz 

Patricia Lantz has an extensive history of public service, including serving six terms in the House of Representatives in the 26th Legislative District and ten years on the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission. A graduate of the University of Puget Sound School of Law and Stanford University, Pat specialized in land-use planning and immigration law as an attorney. In the early 1970s, Pat chaired the Gig Harbor Comprehensive Plan Committee and helped to create a novel land use development plan that has successfully guided growth, preserving much of what makes the Gig Harbor Peninsula such a desirable place to call home. The plan was adopted by Pierce County and, to this day, protects natural areas performing essential ecological functions. Pat continued to lend her legal acumen to local conservation efforts as a founder of the Peninsula Heritage Land Trust where she helped to write the group’s 501c3 designation and by-laws as well as its first conservation easements. Pat and her husband John, a former GPC board member, remain active supporters of Great Peninsula Conservancy motivated by “Books and more books, saltwater shorelines, trees, green of all hues, the sound of rushing water, and those who know about the world writ large.” 

Honoring Gary Cunningham

In the spring of 2020, GPC staff recommended that the name of the GPC Conservation Award get an update. After a unanimous vote of approval from the GPC board, the award that Gary himself had won in 2017 was renamed in his honor.  The Gary Allen Cunningham Conservation Award will continue to recognize a partner or volunteer who has made a significant contribution to GPC’s mission, and be presented at GPC’s annual fundraising event.

Starting in 2014, GPC has awarded the Conservation Award, now the Gary Allen Gunningham Conservation Award, to a conservation hero in our community. Read below for the former recepients:

  • 2014 Dorothy Lind
  • 2015 Chris Dunagan
  • 2016 Paul Dorn
  • 2017 Gary Cunningham
  • 2018 Kate Kuhlman
  • 2019 Ken Shawcroft
  • 2020 Nancy and Dick D’Archangel
  • 2021 Art Schick
  • 2022 Margaret ‘Kit’ Ellis
  • 2023 Phil Best
  • 2024 Jeromy Sullivan