Francis Underhill Macy

Francis Underhill Macy (February 19, 1927 – January 20, 2009) was founder and co-director of the Center for Safe Energy between 1995 till his death in 2009. During this time Macy trained hundreds of activists in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kazakhstan to address the environmental legacy of the nuclear arms race and the Chernobyl disaster. Initiating scores of professional delegations and exchanges between Americans and their counterparts in the former Soviet Union in the areas of psychology, environment, and citizen organizing since 1983, Macy empowered the rise of non-governmental organizations – a strong contribution to the health of post-Soviet life. In 2005, he was awarded the Nuclear Free Future Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Between 1964 and 1972, he served as deputy Peace Corps director in India, country director in Tunisia and Nigeria and finally as director of all Peace Corps programs in Africa".

Macy “pioneered as a citizen ambassador linking Russians and Americans in shared concern for the environment, at a pivotal time when environmental activism was just emerging in the Soviet Union” and “led in the formation of permanent protection and restoration efforts, such as Earth Island’s Baikal Watch project,” says John Knox, co-executive director of Earth Island Institute. Earth Island’s founder, David Brower, was “particularly grateful for Macy’s leadership” in engaging him with Russia’s foremost environmental leaders.

Macy complemented his organizational trainings with experiential teachings in Deep Ecology. He served as director of the Institute for Deep Ecology from 1995, and led transformational workshops around the world with his wife of 56 years, Joanna Macy, a leading Buddhist and systems theory teacher. Together they trained people to become leaders in the broader environmental movement.