Farewell to the Big Man

When it comes to Al Meyerhoff, there is one thing everyone agrees on: he filled up a room. Big hair, big frame, and, most important, big ideas.

Albert Henry Meyerhoff Jr., a leading NRDC public health lawyer for 17 years, died on Sunday, December 21, 2008, from complications of leukemia. He is survived by his wife, Marcia Brandwynne; his daughter, Leah, a filmmaker in New York City; his mother, Ruth, of Ellington, Connecticut; and his brothers, George, of Van Nuys, California, and Alan, of Panama City, Florida.

Born in Ellington, Meyerhoff graduated from Cornell Law School in 1972. He took a $60-a-week job with California Rural Legal Assistance, representing migrant workers and the rural poor. He came to NRDC's San Francisco office in 1981, a professional move that was in step with his passion to give a voice to ordinary people. "He saw early on that the interests that were particular to the environmental movement involved the underrepresented and the poor," says Mitch Bernard, NRDC's litigation director.

One of Meyerhoff's big NRDC wins was the 1986 passage of California's Proposition 65, which not only requires businesses to notify Californians when they are exposed to substances, such as some pesticides, that cause cancer and birth defects, but also prohibits the discharge of those chemicals in or near state drinking water.
Big Al is remembered for his ability to put together a campaign-for example, a celebrity bus tour in support of Prop 65. "He realized that a critical element of environmental reform was public support," says Lawrie Mott, a former NRDC senior scientist who worked with Meyerhoff on health issues. He was also a frequent opinion writer for news outlets, including Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, for which he wrote his last op-ed (on the use of toxic chemicals during cancer treatment) days before he died.

After leaving NRDC in 1998 to practice class action law, Meyerhoff became well-known as co-lead counsel in a workers' rights suit against 23 retailers, including Ralph Lauren and Nordstrom. In the months before his death, Meyerhoff was looking into the different ways he might bring a lawsuit against pesticide companies whose products are linked to colony collapse disorder, an epidemic that is decimating America's bee populations. "He always had about 20 ideas, 19 of which didn't work, but one of which would be brilliant," Mott says. "He will be missed."