John Cronin
Renowned Environmentalist and Policy Maker

For 33 years, John Cronin has dedicated himself to protection of the American environment. The Wall Street Journal has called him “a unique presence on America’s major waterways.” People magazine described him as “equal parts detective, scientist and public advocate.”

Cronin dedicated much of his career to the restoration of New York’s Hudson River, once considered America’s most polluted waterway. His work there prompted the Knight-Ridder newspapers to praise him as a “hero in one of the great success stories of the modern environmental movement.”

He currently serves as the Executive Director for the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries where he is directing the planning for a $100M global science, technology and policy research institute created by Governor George E. Pataki.

He is the director of the Pace Academy for the Environment at Pace University where he also serves as Resident Scholar in Environmental Studies in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department.

Cronin lecturers frequently on environmental policy, the role of religion in environmental issues, American activism and American democracy, and the capacity of individuals to make a major difference in the world. 

He is a former commercial fishermen, lobbyist, and legislative aide. For 17 years he served as New York’s Hudson Riverkeeper where he was responsible for the investigation of more than one hundred pollution cases and established far-reaching management and enforcement practices for one of the nation’s premier estuaries. His work there led to the creation of 140 similar posts worldwide.

A writer and award-winning documentary filmmaker, John Cronin co-authored The Riverkeepers, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., published by Scribner. He has written extensively on environmental policy for the Op-Ed page of the New York Times. He wrote and co-produced The Last Rivermen which was named one of the outstanding documentary films of 1991 by the Motion Picture Academy Foundation. 

He has been the subject of two books and extensive major media print and broadcast documentaries and profiles. His environmental work has brought him many honors including Time Magazine “Hero for the Planet,” American Fisheries Society William E. Ricker Award, Thomas Berry Environmental Award, and an Honorary Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law.