Washington College will unveil the next major initiative in its drive to become a national leader in undergraduate environmental and sustainability programming, with a naming and groundbreaking ceremony on September 8 for the new waterfront Semans-Griswold Environmental Hall.

Named for Truman T. Semans and Jack S. “Jay” Griswold, two people whose lives’ work on environmental issues has had an extraordinary impact regionally and nationally, the new building will provide academic and lab spaces for the college’s growing environmental programs and its Center for Environment & Society. It will also be a regional hub for hands-on research on the Chesapeake, and a magnet for thought leadership centered on the environment and the challenges facing the region, the country, and the world.

“We at Washington College are so proud to be able to honor Truman Semans and Jay Griswold with the dedication of this beautiful new building,” said college President Kurt M. Landgraf. “Truman Semans’ lifelong leadership in the environmental movement, both locally and nationally, has literally changed our world. And Jay Griswold’s selfless devotion to this college, as well as his commitment to the Chesapeake Bay, is legendary. Both of these men stand as an inspiration to every one of our students.”

The event will also confer the Truman Semans Lifetime Achievement Award in Conservation. Semans, who in the late 1960s was among those who conceived the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), was presented with the college’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in Conservation in 2014 (the award is being renamed in his honor). He served on CBF’s board for nearly 30 years, and he was instrumental in linking the corporate world to the environmental movement, financing pollution control equipment for industry to help meet the goals of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

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