A. Keith Smiley

Founder of Mohonk Consultations, Preservationist and Humanitarian

Co-Founder of The Mohonk Trust (TMT)
Founding of Mohonk Consultations
Nature as Teacher
A Different Style of Leadership
Inspiration
An optimist
Core Ideas
A Distinguished Life
A Daughter’s View
Paul C. Huth Tribute

What is remarkable about Keith Smiley is that his twentieth-century ideas of how to live sustainably on the earth are even more crucial today for the survival of all life on the planet. Keith used these ideas to create a mission for Mohonk Consultations, the organization he helped found in 1980. Its purpose is to bring together people of diverse perspectives to affect a clearer understanding of the connectedness of all life on earth; emphasize the sustainable use of earth’s resources, including people; and develop the practical means to do so.

Raised in a Quaker family, Keith was a man who lived and acted upon his principles. As part of the Smiley family that founded Mohonk Mountain House in the Shawangunk Mountains of New York's Hudson River Valley in 1869, he served as Mohonk’s chair of the Board from 1970 to 1985.

Co-Founder of The Mohonk Trust (TMT)

In addition to providing respite for guests, Keith and his family promoted Quaker values that included hosting discussions and conferences to encourage living in harmony with the earth and bringing about peace in the world. To make that mission more concrete, in 1963, with family members and friends, Keith helped found The Mohonk Trust (TMT), which is now known as the Mohonk Preserve, a 6,400 acre, non-profit nature preserve established to provide public recreation, scientific research, and address global environmental concerns.

For ten years, Keith and his wife Ruth helped guide TMT’s International Affairs Committee, sponsoring innovative meetings of foreign students and their advisors from colleges across the country.

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A. Keith and Ruth H Smiley. Courtesy MMH Archives

Some of these students went on to become environmental leaders in their home countries. Under Keith’s leadership, the Committee also collaborated with such groups as the International Peace Academy that held meetings at Mohonk with UN delegates and staff to support peace initiatives of the UN.

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Shown l-rt. are Winslow Shaw, then chair of the Board of the Mohonk Preserve, U Thant,
third Secretary-General of the United Nations (1961-71), and A. Keith Smiley.
Photo by Ruth H. Smiley, courtesy of MP-DSRC (Mohonk Preserve Daniel Smiley Research Center).

Founding of Mohonk Consultations

Keith and the Committee also became involved in international environmental issues with the US Agency for International Development [AID] and the United Nation’s CODEL [Coordination in Development, Inc.]]But as their work expanded and as TMT became the Mohonk Preserve in 1978 and its resources focused more on Shawangunk land, Keith envisioned a separate organization. Thus in 1980 they joined with others to create Mohonk Consultations, Inc. to continue their efforts with a variety of individuals and groups in fostering greater harmony on the earth.

Nature as teacher

Keith acquired his profound understanding of how the earth “works” as he played and explored on his home turf in the Shawangunks. Often with his brother Dan, he fished, skated on the lake, hiked, skied, climbed trees and cliffs, made Maple syrup and sat and listened. Birds were of special interest to the brothers. The two also began an intensive study and record of the natural history of the area that Dan later developed into a world-class research center now part of the Mohonk Preserve and involved in studies of global climate change. (See NYTimes, a version of this article appeared in print on September 16, 2008, on page F1 of the New York edition)

dan-keith-ca-1978

Daniel Smiley and his brother A. Keith Smiley ca 1978. Courtesy MMH Archives.

During the rest of his life, Keith walked daily in the woods and traveled to many countries around the globe with his wife, Ruth. They always found inspiration in the world’s different cultures and natural wonders—reinforcing the idea of the interconnectedness of all life on earth—a theme that informed his life’s work.

A different style of leadership

Keith lived out his philosophy by gently sharing his ideas, or as he would say, “leading from behind.” He recognized that the people who carry out any project must also be a part of the decision-making process. He often sought out individuals in positions of leadership. One of those was Noel Brown, Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

To spread his beliefs further, Keith self-published several pamphlets that focused on people living in harmony with the planet and each other: The Importance of Trees, The Importance of Walking and The Importance of Networking. Unlike many “environmentalists,” Keith always included people as an integral part of the environment.

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A. Keith Smiley leading a hiking group at Mohonk. Courtesy of MMH Archives.

He realized that getting things done “with enduring benefits to all concerned” must involve reconciliation and consensus-building, cornerstones that he built into Mohonk Consultations’ mission.

Inspiration

Reading widely, Keith was influenced by many great thinkers such as Barbara Ward, who wrote,

“The planet we are creating is one in which no nation, no race, no culture can escape a truly global destiny. There is no choice about this fact. The only choice available is to recognize it—and to do so in time” (“Progress for a Small Planet,” Sept–Oct 1979 Harvard Business Review).

At the same time, Keith showed a cutting-edge perspective and outlined challenges ahead by quoting Lester Brown in World Without Borders:

“Any effort to reshape the future must begin with you and me. Being a taxpaying, law-abiding citizen who votes regularly is no longer enough to ensure our future. Our circumstances require that we become politically active, not in [partisan] politics, but in terms of our self interest and that of our children. We begin with the formulation of a new ethic … [that] must seek harmony between man and nature and encompass an ideology of global unification.”

Indeed, as his daughter, Sandra Smiley, who continues her father’s work, says, “It was meant to be a truly “holistic” venture.” Paul C. Huth, Director of the Mohonk Preserve’s Daniel Smiley Research Center, also has noted the influence of Aldo Leopold on Keith’s work in co-founding both The Mohonk Trust and Mohonk Consultations.

An optimist

Keith nevertheless lamented people’s alienation from the physical universe, each other, and from history and tradition. He feared overwhelming damage to the Earth’s natural systems and the defeat of human purposes that could result in scarcity and losses of civil freedoms. He rejected the then dominant belief in an unlimited abundance of earth’s resources and the ability of science and high technology to overcome all problems.

But rather than accept “the options of doing nothing or attempting to restrain or to abandon technology and basic amenities,” Keith believed that groups of people working together could:

perceive relationships between all the various parts of the earth’s ecosystem
relate with planet Earth, with each other, and with the cultural patterns of other persons
change perspectives and values, alter attitudes and feelings, and transform the physical environment with much greater care.

A group could achieve these goals, by putting together a “map” of each situation, considering a variety of methods to deal with problems before taking action, and emphasizing specific, practical situations, rather than generalized ones. That proposal became the model of his Mohonk Consultations’ work, which he believed could help save people and the planet.

Core ideas

On his retirement from Mohonk Consultations in 1993, Keith stated three core ideas that had formed the basis of his life’s work:

There will be no real peace and justice until all people are free of hunger, basic disease and the threat of annihilation –and have the right to be involved in their own decision-making procedures.
The well-being of all people and the well-being of the planetary ecosystem cannot be dealt with separately.
Achievement of the process of self-determination by local groups or country-wide and world-wide assemblies requires a special style of leadership.

Keith Smiley’s long and productive life ended in 2001 at the age of 91. He was widely and publicly lauded for his dedication to the environment and his work for world peace.

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In 1994 A. Keith Smiley and his family were recognized for their environmental stewardship by a United Nations Environmental Award.

When you are brought close to the elements, the mind clears.

— The Importance of Walking by Keith Smiley

Trees treasured in memory: When traveling,… look at the trees…
Admire them, and study them, and glory in their history and their special qualities.

— The Importance of Trees by Keith Smiley

A Distinquished Life

A. Keith Smiley was a member of the Society of Friends, a Quaker. His life exemplified his philosophy. He lived and acted upon his principles. Keith was never limited by his geographic roots or his local occupations and was truly a man for all seasons.

Education

Mohonk School for Boys
BA, Haverford College, 1932

Community Service

Oakwood School, Poughkeepsie, NY, Board of Managers (1958-67)
Institute for Development, Planning, and Land Use Studies, SUNY New Paltz, Advisory Board
New Paltz Area Common Cause, Coordinator (1973-75)
Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, Indiana, Board of Advisors (1972-85)

Mohonk Mountain House

Mohonk Mountain House, Smiley Brothers, Inc., Lifetime involvement
The Mohonk Trust (now Mohonk Preserve), Founder and Board of Directors 1963 ff.

Publications

The Story of Mohonk, editor
Five Essays on the Geological History and Physical Features of the Local Area
The Importance of Walking
The Importance of Trees
The Importance of Networking

Quaker Activities

Friends World committee, Section of the Americas (1962-82)
Clerk of Committee on Sharing the World’s Resources (1973-82)

World Service

New Call to Peacemaking, joint project of the Mennonites, Brethren and
Quakers (1977-79)
New York Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends
Clerk of Ministry and Counsel (1960-62)
Chair of Committee for Study of Faith and Beliefs (1959-63)
Chair of Committee on Revision of Book of Discipline, Faith section (1959-63)
Quaker United Nations Office
Committee for Quaker House, retreat for UN Delegates
Committee on Revision of Human Rights, Declaration, Rights of the Child
CODEL (Coordination in Development)
Committee on Environment and Development (1979-92)

Honors

Haverford College Award of Merit (jointly with Dan Smiley)
Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress Quality of Life in the Hudson Valley Award (1992)

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Letter from President Clinton