Resolution 113-2003
Mayor Pro Tern Murray E. Nelson
RESOLUTION NO. 113 2003
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS OF MONROE COUNTY IN
RECOGNITION OF THE LATE ANNA DAGNY JOHNSON
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson passed away on March 5, 2003, at the age of 85; and
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson, who was born in Norway and came with her family to the United States when
she was a young girl, grew up in a Chicago suburb, attended Mount Holyoke College, and studied in Paris in 1937 as an
exchange student, earning a law degree from the University of Chicago, and moving to the Keys after working as a
labor lawyer in Chicago and Washington, DC; and
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson was a union organizer, an active civil rights worker and an adamant
environmentalist, and friends remember her as a well-connected "warrior," and "the voice of environmental sanity;" and
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson was known as the environmental conscience of the Upper Keys by local
politicians, developers and other adversaries because of her tenacity in protecting the island environment she dearly
loved; and
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson was a role model for those determined to protect a coral island chain as beautiful
as it is fragile; she was a pioneer and matriarch of the environmental movement in the Florida Keys, and she foresaw the
crunch that our natural resources were running out; and
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson as president and co-founder of the Upper Keys Citizens Association was at the
forefront of efforts to protect the hardwood hammocks of North Key Largo, a campaign that culminated in the $67
million state purchase of more than 8,000 acres of hammock for preservation; and
WHEREAS, in honor of her tireless work in saving thousands of acres, in 200 I an II-mile stretch of pristine
hammock was renamed the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammocks Botanical State Park; and
WHEREAS, Dagny Johnson is survived by her brother, Arthur Johnson, three nephews, a cousin, Herman
Riley Stein ofIslamorada, and many grateful environmentalists throughout the World; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MONROE COUNTY,
FLORIDA:
Section 1: Hereby adopts this Resolution as an expression to the family of their deepest sympathy in the
passing of the late Dagny Johnson, and in great appreciation of the service she gave to her community.
Section 2: Mayor Pro Tern Murray E. Nelson forwards a copy ofthis Resolution to the family of Dagny
Johnson expressing the Board's sorrow and gratitude.
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PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Board of County Commissioners of Monroe County, Flo@a, at a ~ing
of said Board held on the 19th day of March , A.D., 2003. 5-; fl 2;:; ::J
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Mayor Dixie M. Spehar yes CJ. " .::-0 c:;:,
,,'eM, ayor Pro Tern Murray E. Nelson 0 c> ! -, _
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. ~ C' ,~mmissioner George Neugent :::'$?v;:~' - ~
"<"\(c /':'" COmmissioner Charles "Sonny" McCoy ~:: =-<"r- h ;,
\\v..> Commissioner David P. Rice v<>'" ""'l.-t:?: ~ r:-,
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(SEAL) BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS:::; fiJ
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Deputy e1erk APPROVED AS TO FORM ay Chairman
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