This year, in honor of our 35th anniversary, the
Port Townsend Marine Science Center is asking our supporters to match a
generous $10,000 bequest from Mirriel Bedell, the mother of co-founder Judy
D’Amore, to underwrite our commitment to place-based, people-powered, hands-on
learning. Donate today to help us reach our goal and fulfill our mission to
inspire conservation of the Salish Sea!
You may not immediately
recognize the name Mirriel Bedell, but it’s fair to say that if you are
passionate about conserving the Salish Sea, this inspiring woman has impacted
your life.
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| Mirriel Bedell |
That’s because Mirriel was
not only a remarkable person in her own right, she is also the mother of Port
Townsend Marine Science Center co-founder Judy D’Amore.
Born in 1919 in Chicago,
Mirriel was raised by her mother and two aunts after her father’s death. She received a degree in chemistry at the
University of Iowa, where she also met and married Jack Hummel. Over the next
few years, the family grew to include their daughter Judy, the eldest, and four
other children.
Learning about the natural
world was a "given" in Hummel
family life.
“Nature was important to
both our parents,” says Judy. “We took lots of camping and canoeing trips when
we were growing up. My parents even moved us to a house on the edge of town
where our backyard consisted of five acres of woods.”
Mirriel’s inquisitive nature
served her children well.
“Science and exploration were
always a very big part of our lives,” Judy explains. “We raised chickens,
rescued and rehabilitated snapping turtles and baby birds, and caught fish from
local streams for our aquarium. There were endless tadpoles and, somewhere
along the way, even a pet skunk!”
Throughout her children’s lives,
Mirriel endowed them with the belief that anything was possible, and that the
post-WWII days represented an exciting time where “the doors were open.”
When her husband died,
Mirriel obtained a teaching certificate and continued to pursue her passion for
knowledge by teaching high school science. She would later marry George Bedell,
a physician and widower with four children of his own.
“George was a very kind and
thoughtful man,” says Judy. “I think he felt that Mirriel would be a great
mother for his children. And she was -- for all nine of us.”
As the Hummel and Bedell
children entered adulthood and started their own families, Mirriel continued to
share her enthusiasm for education by bringing her grandchildren to summer camps
at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
Last fall, Mirriel passed
away at the age of 97. But that was not the end of her story. Her inspiring
legacy lives on at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, thanks to a $10,000
bequest from her estate.
We are grateful to Mirriel, not
only for inspiring Judy and her siblings, but also for her generous gift that
will allow future generations to learn about the curiosities and wonders of the
Salish Sea. Her life is a testament to the eloquent words of English
philosopher Herbert Spencer: “The great
aim of education is not knowledge, but action.”
The sea star wasting monitoring program includes weekly counts of all stars at the Marine Exhibit and quarterly counts of stars in two long-term plots on the east jetty at the Indian Island county park which were established with Dr. Melissa Miner, UC Santa Cruise and the MARINe program. We added two subtidal sites to that on the east footing for the Indian Island bridge and along the main bulkhead under the Marine Exhibit. The Indian Island site was chosen for three reasons. First, it is close to the intertidal site. Conditions are very similar at the two sites. Second, the boundaries of area counted are easy to identify; the vertical surface of the footing down to the substrate. Third, there are no deep holes beneath rocks for stars to hide in. Counts are done during the same month as the intertidal counts, providing consistency in our data. There is only a short time during slack water between tidal changes, so the subtidal Indian Island counts are done snorkeling, rather than with scuba. We can move faster without the scuba gear and we can continue to work in somewhat higher currents. Counts are made in vertical strips about a meter wide, with markers on the bottom to help us maintain orientation within each strip. We swim to the bottom, then count stars while swimming toward the surface. Each star seen in the study area is identified to species and size is measured in 5cm increments (0-5, 5-10, 10-15, and >15) from the middle of the body to the end of one arm. The counts include ochre and mottled stars, with occasional blood stars included.
