Jim Bohlen 1926-2010

July 2010

Sierra Club BC is saddened to note the passing of one of our first directors. Jim Bohlen died on July 5, 2010, at the age of 84.

More than 40 years ago, Jim Bohlen and his wife Marie attended the first meeting of what would become Sierra Club BC.  Held at Simon Fraser University, about 8 Sierra Club US supporters met to decide if they wanted to start their own Sierra Club group. Formed out of the Northwest Chapter of Sierra Club US, which included members in B.C., Alberta, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, the B.C. group decided to become a separate entity, nominating Jim as their first president.

Katy Madsen, also a founding director of Sierra Club BC, remembers that Jim was instrumental in getting things going. The group grew to about 50 members in those first years, Katy says, with some members moving up from the U.S. and others joining here.

“We were making a dent and we knew it,” says Katy.

Soon after the B.C. group formed, Jim Bohlen and others chartered a boat and headed to Amchitka Island, Alaska, to protest nuclear weapons testing. The “Don’t Make a Wave Committee” that organized the journey later became Greenpeace, with Jim Bohlen as one of its founders.

Jim resigned as president of the Sierra Club’s B.C. group to focus on his work with Greenpeace, but his role in the initial days of Sierra Club BC has had a lasting impact. As Katy says: “One person can make a big, big difference. When you do something, it spreads out (to others).”