The 1969 National Distinguished Service Conservation Award

Victor John Yannacone, jr. was awarded the 1969 National Distinguished Service Conservation Award “for outstanding contributions to the wise use and management of the nation’s natural resources.” The full citation was

The law was seldom employed as a means of combating environmental degradation until recently, when legal suits against polluters proved litigation a powerful offensive.

Most of the initiative for the conservation law movement can be attributed to Victor John Yannacone, Jr., one of the founders of the Environmental Defense Fund and its general counsel in court suits against air and water polluters and pesticide manufacturers and users. His legal contention that citizens have a constitutional right to protect themselves from environmental insults has fired the imagination and interest of the legal profession and conservation groups throughout the country.

Perhaps his greatest contribution has been in helping to create a national public awareness, through Iitigation, of the overall need to improve the quality of our environment.