Maurice Ash

Maurice Ash (1917 – 2003) was an environmentalist, writer, and planner. wikiHe was chairman of the Town and Country Planning Association's executive from 1969 to 1983; chairman of the Dartington Trust, when it was going through a rough patch, from 1972 to 1984; and the chairman of the all-party environmental lobby group the Green Alliance from 1978 to 1983. "At LSE, he met Michael Young (Lord Young of Dartington, obituary, January 16 2002) who became a lifelong friend. Young introduced him to the Dartington Hall Trust.... Thanks to Ash the TCPA produced the stimulating and influential schools' magazine Bulletin of Environmental Education, which was edited for 10 years by Colin Ward." Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst owned Dartington Hall, but "After Dorothy Elmhirst died, Leonard went to America and Ash became chairman of the Dartington Trust. Various enterprises were in financial free fall, and the once-great school went haywire, filling tabloid front pages before tragi-comically self-destructing. While some Dartington activities had to be given up, many vigorous new ones started. As well as Dartington glass there was pottery, music, the Schumacher College and the Cider Press for crafts. One beneficiary was my magazine, the Vole, of which Dartington was a major backer, as it was later of Satish Kumar's Resurgence. ... Meanwhile, at Sharpham there was a 100-acre farm run on Rudolf Steiner principles, where pasture, grass, cows, milk and cheese led satisfyingly one to the other, while vineyards produced red and white wine. It was also variously the home of a Buddhist community and college, and of the Robert Owen Foundation, a charity which provided agricultural experience for adults with mental disabilities..." His daughter is Claire Ash Wheeler.


 * Cofounder, Human Scale Education

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Richard Boston
 * Henry Moore Foundation
 * John Michell