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Profile of a REP leader: Philip R. Pryde, Ph.D.

During the summer of 1998, in REP's first election, a relatively new member from San Diego named Phil Pryde was elected to our Board of Directors. At the time, REP co-founder (and fellow San Diegan) Aurie Kryzuda was the only one on our board who knew much about him, and she was thrilled to find out that Phil would be joining our leadership team. It wasn’t long, however, before the other directors recognized the talents that Phil brought to our board and came to agree with Aurie that Phil was a “catch.” He has been an active, engaged, enthusiastic and productive director ever since.

Phil's Summer ‘00 Green Elephant article, “Environmentalism and Patriotism” (written and published before the post-9/11 patriotic fervor), and five policy papers he wrote especially for REP America—Wetlands, Oceans, Public Lands, Energy and Takings—are all available on our web site.

The author of the feature article in this Green Elephant, Phil is also the local arrangements chair for our annual meeting and conference, to be held in San Diego in September. Lucky attendees will have the chance to take two field trips that Phil (a master birder in his “spare” time) is leading. Take a look at Phil’s brief bio at the end of his article and you’ll see how likely you are to learn a lot from those outings!

Since Phil is a superb writer with a rock-solid grasp of REP mission, goals and methods, we asked him for a brief explanation of his feelings about our organization. Here’s what he had to say:



“REP represents the American mainstream. It’s the organization for all who believe that patriotism includes protecting America’s environment, that compassionate conservatism includes conserving America’s natural resources, that national security includes developing our own renewable energy resources, and that a priority on education includes sound environmental education. In short, it’s an organization in tune with what most Americans believe.

“Politically, REP is in a most unique situation. Not only is the Republican administration learning that it must respect REP’s positions, but the Democrats—having bumbled away their majorities in Congress—are absolutely dependent on securing the support of moderate, REP-friendly Republican senators and representatives to pass any environmental legislation they may wish to introduce. Both sides of the aisle need REP, more than they may think.”