Founder and first president of the Nashua River Watershed Association, Marion Stoddart has worked tirelessly to advocate for clean water and waterways. Through her efforts the first anti-water pollution bill enacted by any state in the United States, the 1965 Massachusetts Clean Water Act, was passed.

Born in Reno, Nevada, Stoddart studied anthropology and sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California and education at the University of California, Berkley. She moved with her husband and family to Groton, Massachusetts in 1962, where she lived just three-quarters of a mile from the Nashua River. Heavily used for industry, it was one of the ten most polluted rivers in the United States at that time. Having grown up in an environment where water was a scarce and valued resource, Stoddart made the clean-up of the Nashua River her life’s goal. And she succeeded.

Stoddart has been widely recognized for her work. She has been honored with a United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 Award, and profiled by the National Geographic Society and Today Show. The children’s book, A River Ran Wild, chronicles her work and is widely used in fourth grades throughout the country. The Work of 1000, an award-winning documentary, tells her story and is used as a tool for civic engagement.

In March of 2019, the “Nashua Wild and Scenic Rivers Act” was signed into law, officially designating sections of the Nashua, Squannacook, and Nissitissit Rivers as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, a fitting tribute to Stoddart’s legacy.