Called the "first professional environmentalist" to head the Environmental Protection Agency since its founding in 1970, Reilly came to the agency in 1989 with a background in law and urban planning. He had been appointed to President Richard Nixon's Council on Environmental Quality in 1970, and was named executive director of the Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth two years later. In 1973, Reilly became president of the Conservation Foundation, a non-profit environmental research group based in Washington, D.C., which he is credited with transforming into a considerable force for environmental protection around the world. In 1985, the Conservation Foundation merged with the World Wildlife Fund; Reilly was named as president, and under his direction, membership grew to 600,000 with an annual budget of $35 million.

William K. Reilly describing the Bush...