Quiet philanthropist was ‘a giant’ in conservation
More than 4 million acres throughout all 50 states — and the protected ecosystems that depend on them — are the beneficiaries of the little known efforts of a man with a well-known name.
Richard P. Mellon, the eldest son of the founder of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, is being remembered as having done more for land conservation than any private individual in American history. He shares that legacy with his surviving brother, Seward Prosser Mellon, who succeeded him when he retired from the foundation in 2009 after 28 years as its chairman.
Mr. Mellon, of Ligonier, died on July 27 at age 81 at his summer home on Cousins Island, Maine. His many friends and associates describe him as unpretentious, quiet, a good listener and one who always deflected credit for his accomplishments as a philanthropist. He also was generous in ways that had nothing to do with money.
Former University of Pittsburgh chancellor Mark
Nordenberg, who worked with Mr. Mellon on numerous projects that changed the face of Pitt and the region’s economy, told of an exchange in the 1990s that resulted from a colleague’s visit to Mr. Mellon’s office. The colleague, Tom Crawford, now vice chancellor for corporate and foundation relations, got there early and took a book. When Mr. Mellon came out to greet him, he sat down, asked Mr. Crawford what he was reading and said, “I know the author.” Several days later, Mr. Crawford got a letter from Mr. Mellon that recommended other books he liked.
“Dick recognized also that little things mean a lot,” Mr. Nordenberg said.
The scale and breadth of giving under Mr. Mellon’s leadership at the foundation touched nearly every aspect of life and culture in southwestern Pennsylvania, including support for pediatric medicine, vaccine research, ophthalmology, biomedicine, neuroscience, childhood education, economic development and the arts.
It was Mr. Mellon’s commitment to the creation of Pitt’s Cancer Institute in the mid-1980s that helped change the region’s economic forecast, Mr. Nordenberg said.
“That was a time when Pittsburgh was going through its local depression with the fall of the steel industry,” Mr. Nordenberg said. “Dick Mellon was so passionate about science and technology that these investments … led to the emergence of ‘eds and meds’ being such a large part of the economy.
“But if he were here, he would be saying, ‘This was a team effort.’ He would be giving credit to his brother, Prosser, and other partners.”
The foundation’s director from 1990 to 2010, Mike Watson was a childhood friend of Mr. Mellon’s and called his death “a terrible loss in my life. He was a generous and kind person who cared about other people.
“It was always fun to have him come into my office to chat. He would sit down and would ask your opinion. He didn’t have an agenda or a demand. He was extremely interested in the foundation, but he let us do our jobs. Now, if there was a natural disaster, he would pop his head in to say, ‘I hope we’re considering something to help.’”
His conservation legacy was built so quietly it is in essence “a hidden story, all the more remarkable for having changed the face of the American landscape,” said Larry Selzer, CEO of The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that acts as the foundation’s primary acquisitions agent. “He and his brother were giants in this field. They not only protected history; they made history. For other families who are thinking about building a philanthropic legacy, this is the model.”
Along with 13,000 acres along Maine’s coast, 2,600 acres of Maine islands and more than 2,600 acres of Florida’s Atlantic Coast, one of the largest habitats of nesting sea turtles, Mr. Mellon’s advocacy helped to move privately owned parts of the Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields into public hands, Mr. Selzer said. Those Civil War battlefields were among 29 of 32 battle sites the foundation was able to procure for the public to visit.
In the late 1980s, when the Walt Disney Corp. proposed a
Civil War-themed park on the site of the battle of Manassas in Virginia, Mr. Selzer said, “Richard launched a nationwide campaign to prevent that.”
He pursued his love of history by procuring items, too. When George Washington’s two saddle pistols went to auction, he bought them and gave them to the Fort Ligonier Museum. The pistols had been a gift to Washington from the Marquis de Lafayette during the American Revolution.
An avid yachtsman, world traveler and reader of history, Mr. Mellon carried himself like an average, unassuming person.
“He had the ability to make you feel you were his peer,” said Sam Reiman, the current director of the foundation. “He was soft-spoken, a strategic thinker, very observant. He had a leadership style that could relax a room. He dressed very casually most of the time.”
A visit to Mr. Mellon’s office told more about him than he ever said about himself — books about land and landscapes, numerous histories and three restored boat engines on pedestals, Mr. Reiman said.
“Everything he cared about was in there.”
Mr. Mellon was the eldest son of the late General Richard King Mellon and Constance Prosser Mellon. After graduating from Valley Forge Military Academy, he attended the University of Pittsburgh and served in the Army, discharged at the rank of first lieutenant.
He is survived by his wife, Kathryn Dybdal; sons Richard Adams Mellon and Armour Negley Mellon; sister Cassandra Milbury; brother Seward Prosser Mellon; and two grandchildren, all of Ligonier.
He was a member and longtime governor of the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier and a member of the Quissett Yacht Club, Falmouth, Mass.; the Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas; and the St. Michaels of the Valley Episcopalian Church in Rector, Westmoreland County.
A private family service was scheduled for this weekend.