Gerry Secundy

Born: Washington, DC, 1942

Prepared at: Phillips Academy Andover, Andover, MA

I grew up in Washington, DC in an all-Black community. My mom is Black. She married a white Jewish fellow from Brooklyn, New York. But they decided when they got married that if she could not live in an all-white neighborhood, then he would live in an all-Black neighborhood. 

Even some of his fellow Black classmates went through four years of Harvard without realizing that Gerry was Black. After Harvard, Gerry went to Columbia Law School. Upon graduation from law school, Gerry entered the Peace Corps, serving in Cusco, Peru. He then joined the United States Department of Justice where he argued environmental cases at the Appellate Level. In 2002, Gerry became Executive Director of Audubon California and Vice President of the National Audubon Society; in 2004, Gerry joined the California ED Staff as Consulting Director until his appointment to the State Water Resources Control Board by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in March 2005.