1928 – 2011
Inducted 2013
“David Engleson was one among a small vanguard nationally that transformed Conservation Education into Environmental Education. It is, however, as a lifetime educator that he has had his greatest impact. For nearly 40 years, he touched the lives of thousands of students, teachers, and aspiring environmental educators.” — Joe Passineau
Engleson’s influence on Wisconsin’s Conservation Legacy is truly impressive. As Environmental Education (EE) Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for nearly three decades, he helped shape the policies of three governors, the state legislature, state agencies, and local school boards. He worked effectively within the DPI to bring EE to every school district, teacher, and child in the state through his efforts to update Administrative Rules for teacher training and certification and for curriculum planning for EE, his work in developing educational materials and in-service teacher workshops, and by writing the hallmark DPI Guide to Curriculum Planning in EE, which is used both nationally and internationally.
During the half century spanning 1950-2000, Engleson knew and/or worked, in one way or another, with just about everyone involved in conservation and education in Wisconsin. This knowledge proved equally useful as he helped shape conservation and education in Wisconsin and later as he advised WCHF on nominees for induction.
He completed his graduate studies while working as a science teacher in southern Wisconsin in the 1960’s. In addition to receiving a Masters in Science Education from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1959, he also completed studies in a variety of science fields at Purdue University, University of Minnesota, Michigan Tech and Wayne State University. In 1960 he participated in a Summer Science Fellowship Program on interrelationships between science, technology and society – an interest that drove his passion for EE for 40 years.
As a high school science teacher from 1954-1967, he promoted conservation and EE. He expressed a strong interest in team teaching a high school conservation course and in September 1963, the course was offered for the first time. It was required of all juniors, the only such required high school conservation course in Wisconsin. Engleson taught this course until he left Franklin in 1967 when he made a career change that would dramatically change him and, in turn, the state of Wisconsin. Based on his exemplary work as a science teacher/coordinator and his leadership in the Wisconsin Council for Conservation Education, Engleson was appointed to be the first EE Consultant for DPI. He held this position from 1967 up to 1991 when he retired.
During his tenure at DPI, he became a key player in a small vanguard of leaders nationally who would transform the earlier movements of Nature Study (early 1900s) and Conservation Education (1930s-1970s) into the new movement called EE. Environmental education sought to embrace the expanding science of ecology and recent advances in education to address the contemporary environmental and related social issues highlighted in the 1970s by Earth Day including the worldwide exploitation of resources, the deterioration of air and water quality, and the global impacts of pesticides, toxins, nuclear contamination and climate change.
As EE Consultant for Wisconsin DPI, Engleson helped other states develop EE positions in Education and Natural Resource agencies. Engleson, during the 1970’s and 1980’s, worked with every school district in Wisconsin helping them develop educational materials and curriculum plans and providing other consultant services. His most important achievements as the DPI EE Consultant were, however, related to his remarkable ability to bring people together, harness diverse talents and build coalitions of support. He did this repeatedly by organizing EE conferences, developing EE plans, creating and leading EE organizations, developing EE teacher training programs, drafting and lobbying for EE legislation and promoting EE statewide, nationally and globally.
In 1972 the United Nations sponsored its first major Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, signaling a global awakening of environmental concern. Recognizing EE as a key solution, UNESCO, in turn, sponsored two international conferences which are still viewed as launching EE onto the global stage: 1975 Belgrade Conference and 1977 Tbilisi Conference.
In 1976 Engleson was invited to serve as a consultant to the UNESCO sponsored North American Regional Seminar of Environmental Education, which examined and reacted to the 1975 Belgrade Charter, a UNESCO document produced a year earlier. The Seminar produced recommendations for the Tbilisi Declaration, a UNESCO document produced in 1977 that became the basis for EE worldwide. the first, and for a long time, the only such program in the nation. Engleson’s 1985 DPI Guide to Curriculum Planning in Environmental Education was based on the Tbilisi Declaration.
He helped draft and gain passage of the 1990 Wisconsin EE Act which institutionalized planning and coordination of EE statewide, provided funding for EE through WEEB and created a Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education at UWSP. In retirement, he also continued to lead and promote the educational efforts of numerous conservation and environmental organizations such as Trees for Tomorrow, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, the Ice Age Alliance, the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame and many more. Members of both state and national organizations such as Wisconsin Association of Environmental Education and North American Association of Environmental Education and Wisconsin Council on Environmental Education regard him as “the father of EE in Wisconsin” and credit his leadership, inspiration and mentoring as reasons they also became teachers, environmental educators, and leaders within the profession.
Resources
David C. Engleson Biographical Summary prepared for WCHF Induction Ceremony
Dennis Yockers remarks at David Engelson Induction Ceremony
A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Environmental Education by David C. Engleson and Dennis H. Yockers
Photos
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