Andrew Rehfeld & Edward Rehfeld

In the early 1970s, Beverly Dawna Rehfeld founded, and served as first President of, the Atlantic County Citizens Council on the Environment (ACCCE), a grassroots environmental organization in Atlantic County, New Jersey. The daughter of longtime Ventnor residents Morris and Frances Slotnick, Ms. Rehfeld and her two young sons, Edward and Andrew, had moved back there in the late 1960s, when she noticed increased development encroaching on the wetlands she loved. Joining with several other individuals, including some of those involved in founding Stockton State College (now Stockton University), Ms. Rehfeld established the ACCCE, and, in coalition with other like-minded organizations, saved a large area of wetlands in and around Atlantic County. Under her leadership, the organization also helped to draft and pass some of the nation’s first statewide wetlands protection legislation. The ACCCE continued its work to protect the environment, and Ms. Rehfeld moved to Philadelphia, where she directed the communications department of a nonprofit home for the intellectually disabled, then ran her own communications firm. In 2007, she moved to St. Louis, Missouri, near her youngest son, and shortly thereafter began writing Beverly’s Notebook (http://beverlysnotebook.blogspot.com), an ongoing blog about her life, current affairs, and the environment. In 2020, Ms. Rehfeld moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, near her eldest son, where she continues to enjoy, and write about, the natural world. Her sons established this scholarship to honor their mother’s legacy, and to encourage talented Stockton University students to pursue careers in environmental science.