Bradford Clemans Northrup

Brad Northrup of Bethesda, Maryland, passed away peacefully on the night of May 26, 2022. The cause of death was multiple myeloma.

Raised in Johnstown, New York, on the edge of the Adirondacks, Brad was the oldest of five children born to Jane Clemans and Harold Bradford Northrup. He graduated from Hobart College in 1964, received an MBA from the University of Buffalo, and years later completed a Masters of Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School. The course of his 40-year career with The Nature Conservancy mirrored the evolution of the organization itself.

Hired in 1971 as one of the first professional employees of The Nature Conservancy, Brad devoted his career to building the capacity of the organization as it grew into the world’s largest conservation NGO. He began as assistant director of development in the national office and shortly thereafter left the DC area to establish and staff the Conservancy’s first regional office in Boston and create state offices to carry out conservation projects in the eastern United States in concert with volunteer chapters. Among the many projects his staff successfully completed during those early years was the Mashomack Preserve in New York–a spectacular 2,350-acre stretch of woods and creeks with eleven miles of coastline on Shelter Island. If you fly over the forked tail of Long Island, you can see it from the air.

In the late 1980s, Brad moved to international conservation work, launching the Caribbean Program as the Conservancy pursued its broader mission of protecting natural diversity beyond the United States. During his years in the Latin American-Caribbean Program, he worked to secure reliable stewardship of “paper parks” in the region through the Conservancy’s Parks in Peril initiative. During his last few years at the Conservancy, he served as director of the Conservation Strategies team, which addressed cross-cutting scientific issues, including climate change and the protection of freshwater and marine systems. From fundraising to global science challenges, Brad’s responsibilities changed as TNC broadened and deepened its mission. He responded to each new challenge with energy and optimism. After his retirement, he continued his work in international land conservation as chairman of the board of the globally active Conservation Coaches Network. There, as always, he led from within–never calling attention to himself but lifting and bolstering his colleagues. Brad’s legacy lives on at the Conservancy in scores of talented staff whom he recruited, hired, and mentored.

He was loved and respected at work and at home for his buoyant, irresistible good nature, his wisdom, and his kindness. A worldly, capable contemporary man, he embodied timeless values: courage, responsibility, integrity, courtesy, and devotion to community. He was funny and ardent and adventurous–serious when gravity was called for and slyly hilarious with friends and family. He delighted in his neighborhood–Brookmont, Maryland, which sits on a bluff above the C & O Canal–and was active on its civic league board for years. And he was proud to volunteer as a “quartermaster” for Lockhouse 6 through the C & O Canal Trust.

Brad is survived by his wife of 38 years, Jody Bolz; his children, Molly (Jabe Bloom), Eli, and Jessie (Mark Patterson) and grandchildren (Macaulay, Em, Mae, and Gus); and his four siblings, Jim Northrup, Nancy Cook, Liz Loper, and Kathy Hansen. An outdoor memorial service will be held at Woodend Sanctuary on Jones Mill Road in Chevy Chase, Maryland, on June 18 at 11 a.m.