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Birth:          17 Jul 1945 Morristown, N.J.
Death:          7 Feb 2010 Alexandria, Va.
Cause of Death: cancer

Notes
!PUBL
Grohn-Hilgart tree on ancestry
obit of Albert Dudley Early
of Alexandria, Va.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021205266.html
pub rec on ancestry 2212 Glasgow Rd., Alexandria, Va.

A. Blakeman Early, 64, dies; environmental-law advocate
"Blake" Early, a key player in the passage of clean air and water laws, fought for 
conservation in Chincoteague, where he had a home.  (Family Photo)  

By Juliet Eilperin
 Saturday, February 13, 2010 
A. Blakeman "Blake" Early, 64, an environmental lawyer and activist who played a key 
role in passing several of the nation's major environmental laws spanning four 
decades, died Feb. 7 at his home in Alexandria. He had cancer. 

Mr. Early, who spent much of his career at the Sierra Club and the American Lung 
Association, helped revise the Clean Air Act in 1977 and 1990, expand the Clean 
Water Act in 1977 and pass measures including the Safe Drinking Water Act and the 
Toxic Substances Control Act. 

He helped write the Superfund law in 1980, which governs the cleanup of toxic waste 
sites across the country, and successfully pushed for a provision six years later 
requiring industrial facilities to publicly report where they emit toxic chemicals. 

"Blake Early was a fierce but gentlemanly warrior in the battle to protect Americans 
from smog, sewage, and toxic chemicals," said Dan Weiss, a senior fellow at the 
Center for American Progress who worked with Mr. Early at the Sierra Club. "The law 
requiring that major polluters report on their release of carcinogens and other toxic 
chemicals is just part of his legacy." 

An enthusiastic sailor, Mr. Early also fought for environmental and historic protections 
in the town of Chincoteague, where he owned a second home. He helped galvanize 
opposition to the construction of a large bridge connecting the mainland to 
Chincoteague, a plan the Virginia Department of Transportation dropped in the face of 
local protests. 

Inside the Beltway, Mr. Early developed a reputation for both his substantive 
knowledge of the issues and his skill at brokering compromises between environmental 
and business groups. 

Scott Segal, who represents oil refineries and chemical manufacturers at the law firm 
Bracewell and Giuliani, remembered how Mr. Early suggested providing financial 
assistance for refiners and additive makers that would be hurt when Congress imposed 
limits in 2005 on the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, known as MTBE. 

"That was Blake," Segal said. "He was capable of recognizing that all sides might 
have a point, that it was appropriate to work towards compromise, not just ideology." 

Allan Blakeman Early was born in Morristown, N.J., on July 17, 1945. He was a 1967 
history graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and later received law and 
environmental law degrees from George Washington University. 

In 1968, he married Barbara Peo. Besides his wife, of Alexandria, survivors include 
two daughters, Alexandra Early of London and Megan McIntyre of Alexandria; and two 
grandsons. 

Mr. Early worked for the Sierra Club from 1979 to 1994 and then for the American 
Lung Association as an environmental consultant until retiring last year. 

For all his mastery of legislative language, Mr. Early was not known for the precision 
of his office-keeping. 

Weiss recalled how Mr. Early's Sierra Club office "had stacks and stacks of bills, 
amendments, fact sheets, letters and other detritus of the lobbying process. 
Nonetheless, one could ask him for a copy of such and such an amendment, and he 
could pull it out of the stack on the first try." 

Mr. Early's desk was so messy that when there was a break-in at the office, Weiss 
said, D.C. police surveyed the scene and reported that "one office appears to have 
been ransacked," referring to Mr. Early's work space. But, Weiss added, "It had not 
been touched." 

Mr. Early displayed a sense of humor about his work, playing in a punk rock band 
called Peter Putrid and the Toxics that penned a song with the lyrics, "Mother Earth is 
Dead so go on and Blow your Head." 

Parents
EARLY Albert Dudley (18 Aug 1913 - 11 Mar 2000)
BRACK Virginia (19 Jun 1913 - 4 May 2005)

Siblings
EARLY Deborah Lyons (2 Mar 1941 - Jan 1985)
EARLY Albert Blakeman ("A. Blakeman") (17 Jul 1945 - 7 Feb 2010)

Marriage To PEO Barbara ()

Notes


Children by PEO Barbara
EARLY Alexandra B. ()
EARLY Megan B. ()

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