Don Hudson became head naturalist at Maine's Chewonki Foundation in 1982, went on to become its executive director in 1991 and has been president since 1997. It sounds like a long time devoted to a single non-profit organization but that’s only half the story.
Hudson, who turned 56 in June, was a 12-year-old summer camper when he first stepped foot on Chewonki’s 400-acre Wiscasset campus in 1962 - the foundation's inaugural year. Instantly hooked, Hudson signed on as a camp counselor from 1966 to 1977, and helped teach Chewonki’s first environmental education courses after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1972.
During Hudson’s tenure, Chewonki has received two Maine Governor's Awards and the Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility's Eagle Feather Award. In 1995, the foundation received a Gulf of Maine Council Visionary Award and Hudson recently completed a one-year term as chairman of the Council's Working Group.