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A Legacy of Service
Six generations of one stories family have been inextricably linked to the National Geographic Society since the organization was established in 1888 "for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge." Gardiner Greene Hubbard, one of National Geographic's 33 founders, was elected its first president. His son-in-law, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, succeeded him as president in 1898. Bell saw the organization as one that would allow anyone interested in the world to participate. Bell understood, as his son-in-law and National Geographic magazine's first full-time editor, Gilbert H. Grosvenor, stated years later, that: "The simplest man takes pride in supporting research." Members of the Grosvenor family who followed employed their energy, imagination, and enthusiasm to expand the reach of the Society, whose mission today is to inspire people to care about the planet. Gilbert Grosvenor's son, Melville Bell Grosvenor, transformed the magazine into a full-color publication, launched the Society's book division, and ushered National Geographic into the world of television. His son, Gilbert M. Grosvenor, who stepped up to the editor's post in 1970 until assuming the role of Society president in 1980, tackled controversial stories avoided by earlier editors, started World magazine for kids, and established an education foundation to expand geographic literacy for young people. The most recent Grosvenor to serve the organization is Gilbert M. Grosvenor's daughter, Dr. Alexandra Grosvenor Eller, who was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2009. A physician with an interest in promoting health across the globe, Grosvenor Eller says that the Society "has always been an integral part of my life and has shaped my vision of the world as an interconnected community."
"I possess only the same general interest in geography that should be felt by every educated man," Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the Society's first president said at the organization's inaugural meeting in 1888.
It was Alexander Graham Bell, here pictured near the Society headquarters, who set the mandate for the Society's magazine when he asked its editor and his son-in-law Gilbert H. Grosvenor in 1902 for "details of living interest beautifully illustrated by photographs."
Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the magazine's editor for 55 years, at the foot of a giant sequoias in 1915. On his return from the trip he gave $20,000 in Society funds to help buy Giant Forest and add it to Sequoia National Park.
Melville Bell Grosvenor, named Editor and President in 1957, with camera in hand at Angkor Way, Cambodia in 1959. Grosvenor, a man of unbounded joy and impulsiveness, had, a colleague remarked, "the enthusiasm of several twelve-year olds."
Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Editor and later President of the Society and then Chairman of the Board until his retirement in 2010, opened the Magazine to a more unflinching view of the world, answering critics, by insisting "the magazine is not changing, the world is..."
Life in a family scheme of planetary (and cultural) awareness influenced Dr. Alexander Grosvenor Eller to specialize in [???]. As Board Trustee, "Lex" [???] represents a sixth generation of family service to the National Geographic Society. |