Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Marjory Stoneman Douglas encouraged activists to "be a nuisance" and to "never give up" even if discouraged by bad politics. I hope she is an inspiration to the heroic students at the school named after her!

-- From Wikipedia

Who was she? A journalist and activist in saving the Everglades. Author of the book River of Grass. This name for the Everglades is now widely used: she invented it. From the "Visit Florida" website: 

In 1969, the 79-year-old writer-turned-environmentalist founded Friends of the Everglades. ... she guided her organization to press for the establishment of the Big Cypress National Preserve (1974), an end to agricultural pollution fouling Everglades water, reform in the expansionist impulses of water managers and restoration of the channelized, diked and otherwise arrested Kissimmee River-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades heart of the region. She spent her remaining decades moving the country toward a sensibility that assimilated the natural Everglades. 

Much like her famous phrase, her name became synonymous with a valued place. In 1997, Congress attached it to a new 1.8-million-acre Everglades wilderness area, four years after President Clinton awarded her the Medal of Freedom. When she died in 1998, at 108, park rangers appropriately broadcast her ashes in the beloved river she gave to America, the River of Grass.  

How sad that we have to associate her name with such a horror, but what an honor to the young activists from her namesake school.