Doris McGuigan, a Brooklyn activist who doggedly fought for environmental protections, died of an apparent heart attack Sunday afternoon while taking a nap at her home. She was 72.
Known as one of the Environmental Grandmas, she battled medical waste incinerators, toxic-waste landfills and oil refineries.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton commended her environmental advocacy at a ceremony at Fort Armistead overlooking Curtis Bay when he issued an order requiring firms doing business with the government to disclose chemical emissions. Her picture appeared on the front page of newspapers including The Sun and The New York Times.
Born Doris Kelser in Washington, she was raised on the Eastern Shore and in Brooklyn Park. She was a 1947 graduate of Glen Burnie High School, and three years later married William McGuigan, an electrician who survives her.
Mrs. McGuigan worked until 1963 for Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co., as a long-distance operator and later a business agent in its St. Paul Place office.
Family members said she became an environment activist after the 1971 leukemia-related death of her mother, Madeline Feidt Kruse, who lived near Curtis Bay. They said Mrs. McGuigan believed the illness was linked to an environmental cause.
A year later, she campaigned for the state to pay relocation costs of families living in a flood plain along Old Riverside Road on a northerly tip of Anne Arundel County.
Nearly three decades later, she was taking up the cause of families living in the city's Wagner's Point area, close to chemical industries.
"I don't know where she got all her energy from. She was so committed," said state Sen. George W. Della Jr., a Baltimore Democrat. "She had this gravelly voice - if you picked up the phone, you knew it was hers. She did business at her kitchen table. She'd invite you in for coffee and tell you what her agenda was.
"She forecast the fire in the Howard Street Tunnel," he continued. "She was extremely knowledgeable and knew all the dangers, what the rail cars held."
"She was an effective and compassionate community activist," said Del. John R. Leopold, a Republican whose District 31 in Anne Arundel includes Brooklyn Park, Pasadena and Glen Burnie. "Whether it was air pollution or hazardous waste, she had a clear understanding that had no city-county borders. She understood the importance of the city and county working together on these issues."
"Doris was a phenomenal - a gentle - person with a tough exterior. She was confident and could talk bluntly with the heads of all the local industries," said Lola Hand, a Glen Burnie activist. "They couldn't buffalo Doris - ever. She was a very smart person who researched her issues thoroughly. She also campaigned hard for the officials she felt shared her ideals."
"It's a big loss for the community. She didn't take no for an answer," said Del. Joan Cadden, a District 31 Democrat. "She didn't back down from anyone. She got many things done in Brooklyn because of her leadership. She built a great working relationship with the state delegation and the mayor's office."
Most recently, Mrs. McGuigan lobbied the city to ban the most dangerous chemicals from Baltimore's Howard Street Tunnel. "We need to look at alternatives to using the tunnel" for hazardous chemicals, she said after the fire last year, pointing out that certain hazardous chemicals were prohibited in the Harbor Tunnel.
"If you can't carry a tank of propane gas [through] the Harbor Tunnel, why are we shipping hazardous materials [through] a railroad tunnel? Why do we have two sets of rules and regulations, one for trucks and another one for trains?" she said.
She also lobbied for her Brooklyn neighborhood and for a $12 million District Court to be built at Patapsco Avenue and Seventh Street.
"It will be a big boost," she said. "It will bring more of a police presence here, which means some of the prostitutes and drug dealers will have to leave."
She was director of the Greater Brooklyn Community Association. She spent Thursdays at the First Baptist Church in Brooklyn, working with the needy.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Fourth Street and Washburn Avenue, where she was a member.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. McGuigan is survived by two sons, Timothy Patrick McGuigan of Pasadena and Gregory Michael McGuigan of Owings Mills; two brothers, John O. Kelser of Catonsville and the Rev. George W. Kelser of Berlin; and two grandchildren.