Giving back to support the environment is a family tradition for Marshall Field V and his daughter, Abby Field Gerry, T’02. Marshall served on the Board of Visitors of the Nicholas School of the Environment from 2000 to 2009, and ultimately served as board chair. When he left the board, Abby stepped in to serve and is still a board member today.
Marshall’s great-great-grandfather founded Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company department store. Since that time, the Field family has donated generously to causes such as education, health care, the arts, and of course, the environment.
The natural world has always been close to Marshall’s heart. He attributes much of his love of the environment to fishing, one of his family’s favorite pastimes.
“Half of the joy of fishing is that it takes you to beautiful places,” he said. “Since so many people were working on paving over America, I wanted to save as much of that beauty as I could.”
A family history of environmental stewardship
In addition to serving as chair of the Nicholas School Board, Marshall was director of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), chair of the Everglades Foundation board, and served on the Atlantic Salmon Federation board. About 10 years ago, he led the charge to help WWF raise $30 million to stop the hunting of tigers in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Marshall also became deeply concerned with the plight of monarch butterflies, whose numbers have plummeted by 90 percent over the past two decades. He raised funds to track the route of the butterflies’ migration, which led to the development of a map that charted a previously unknown part of their route in Mexico and Texas.
He also worked with the National Audubon Society and Native American reservations on an effort to plant milkweed along the route to give the butterflies a place to lay their eggs.
Abby grew up hearing these stories, and also learned from her mother, Jamee, who dedicated herself to local environmental causes in Abby’s hometown in Illinois.
Abby’s involvement in philanthropy started before she even graduated from Duke. She made her first gift to the university during her senior year. She also kept up her engagement after graduation, acting as reunion chair, serving on the Young Alumni Development Council, and becoming a member of the Duke WIN (Women’s Impact Network) leadership council. When her father stepped down from the board of the Nicholas School, she was a natural fit to continue the family’s philanthropic work.
“I decided it would be a great place to get involved because I love the fact that it touches students and the future of the environment,” she said. “I already loved Duke, and to partner that with environmental causes is perfect. Everything that the Nicholas School is trying to achieve speaks to me.”
Building partnerships to create future leaders
During his time on the board, Marshall said he is proudest of forging links between the Nicholas School and other schools at Duke. He strongly believes that multidisciplinary training can make environmental leaders more effective.
He was the first to bring up this idea with William “Bill” Chameides, former dean of the Nicholas School.
“I told him, ‘You do a great job teaching the environmental sciences, but you don’t teach management as well as you could,’” Marshall said. “Why don’t you think about sending the students around to the schools of government, business, and engineering so they come out being managers?’”
This is what motivated Marshall and Abby to advocate for the Business and Climate Sustainability program, which is currently being developed in partnership with Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. They recognized that businesses need specialists with a deep understanding of both environment and management in order to meet their climate targets.
“As a society, we are woefully unprepared for the effects of climate change. Businesses are struggling to keep up with the pace of change in sustainability. They need more expertise within their ranks that understand climate science and business sustainability,” Marshall said, “and I think the Nicholas School is poised to be a leader in this emerging field.”
Duke leads the way on climate and sustainability
Due to her volunteer position on the Nicholas Board of Visitors, Abby was invited to a meeting last year to discuss Duke’s commitment to addressing the climate crisis. Abby said she was excited to see Duke play a leading role during Climate Week in New York last summer and listen to Duke’s Climate Commitment priorities from Vice President and Vice Provost Toddi Steelman and Jerry Lynch, Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering.
“I’m so happy that the university is prioritizing the environment,” Abby said. “They have made it clear that it’s a key initiative for Duke. It’s gratifying to see the Nicholas School at the gravitational center of the Duke Climate Commitment’s work.”
Abby, who went on to earn her master’s degree in early childhood education, also serves on the board of her children’s elementary school and teaches classes for children in grades K-5. Because the environment touches on everything, she is confident that the Nicholas School can contribute to making the world better for her children and the children she teaches.
“I hope we can get far enough along in scientific research where our kids don’t have to worry about the environment as much,” she said. “I hope that our investment in this new academic program in business and climate sustainability is just another way that we can make more progress in protecting our planet, and that that we can alleviate some of their future concerns on the effects of climate change.”
