Endowed Chair Honors Gans’ Decades of Environmental Advocacy

by Anne McGowan Development Communications Coordinator

In recognition of his dedication and commitment to our mission, the NOLS Board of Trustees in 2019 created an endowed chair to honor our longest tenured president, John Gans. John took his first NOLS course—a Semester in Africa—in 1979, became an instructor a year later, and has worked for the school in a variety of positions since. Named president in 1995, John guided NOLS for 24 years.

The endowed chair in John’s name will permanently fund the staff position leading efforts to protect NOLS’ expedition classrooms. John identified the need for this role when he was operations director in the early ’90s and hired our first public policy director. Since then, he had been among our strongest advocates for outdoor classrooms and the environment.

Our wild classrooms are foundational to every NOLS experience, providing powerful learning opportunities for our students. Developing relationships with these special places instills an environmental ethic in our graduates and builds a lifelong tradition of awareness and stewardship. Protecting these places is core to our mission and values as an educational institution.

Today, protecting our outdoor classrooms is the top priority of the Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability department at NOLS. The department combines advocacy work, education, research, and curriculum development to protect core business operations at NOLS. We use these tools to inspire our students to apply their values and act as they move into their own positions of leadership and influence. This serves not only the remote NOLS classrooms, but the many faces of wilderness that NOLS prepares all students to experience.

“When I was hired as executive director in October of 1995, I wrote up a list of goals I wanted to accomplish for NOLS during my tenure,” John said about the honor, awarded to him on Oct. 12, 2019 at the State of the School dinner. “Recently I looked back at that list, and noted that I had achieved all of them but one. The exception was ‘to endow our first staff or faculty chair.’ I made many efforts to achieve this goal, but never got it done. How fitting that friends of NOLS should step in to get this last goal accomplished before I left.”

A quiet campaign launched late in 2019 raised $1.3 million of a $2 million goal to endow and permanently fund this position. Contributions to support the John Gans Endowed Chair continue to be accepted. To make a gift or learn more, please contact Judd Rogers at 307-335- 2289 or call NOLS Development at 800-332-4208.

Oscar Manguy