FOND 



FARE WELL 



including a title sponsorship from First 

 Citizens Bank, and she served on the 

 cleanup's board of directors. Later, she 

 chaired the board. 



"I believe Kathy was instrumental 

 in guiding Big Sweep to a higher level," 

 says Executive Director Judy Bolin. 

 "She's also very compassionate toward 

 people, and she's very passionate about 

 the environment." 



... and now. 



Beyond the borders of North 

 Carolina, Hart performed countless 

 hours of extra service to benefit Sea 

 Grant. She recognized that what 

 programs can't do alone they can 

 together. As a result, she emerged as a 

 leader in the Sea Grant network of 29 

 coastal and Great Lakes programs. 



She masterminded a national media 

 relations office to advance the work of 

 all Sea Grant programs. She led the 

 network in writing a strategic plan for 

 communications. And she was a driving 

 force behind briefings for national 

 media and policy-makers on the decline 

 of fisheries (1995) and the emerging 

 field of marine biotechnology (1997). 



"Kathy recognized that Sea Grant 

 was in a unique position to assist media 



in understanding coastal science," says 

 Ben Sherman, Sea Grant's national 

 media relations coordinator. 



Never hesitant to try something new, 

 Hart's efforts panned out. In 1993, after 

 the Society of Environmental Journalists 

 met in Durham, she led her famed field 

 trip to the coast with national media. 

 When they returned from their whirlwind 

 tour, reporters from as far away as Los 

 Angeles had 

 witnessed a beach 

 restoration in 

 process and met 

 Sea Grant experts 

 on everything from 

 coastal erosion to 

 aquaculture to 

 advances in the 

 fishing industry. 



"Kathy did 

 much to vitalize 

 the programs 

 around the 

 country," says 

 Maryland Commu- 

 nications Director 

 Jack Greer, who 

 has observed 

 Hart's rise above 

 the ranks for 

 nearly two 

 decades. "It goes 

 without saying that her enormous energy 

 and considerable savvy will be sorely 

 missed." 



Hart even parlayed her love for the 

 North Carolina coast and cooking into a 

 book about both. She co-authored 

 Coastal Carolina Cooking with former 

 Sea Grant communicator Nancy Davis. 

 The two researched the book from 

 Currituck to Brunswick counties in the 

 kitchens of 34 cooks who shared their 

 recipes, traditions and their ways of life. 



In many different ways, Hart made 

 her mark on Sea Grant and the North 

 Carolina coast. Her kindness and zest are 

 sorely missed by her colleagues. And her 

 contributions, easily measured by the 

 boxloads of awards she packed out of her 

 office, will be remembered in the 



standards of excellence that she left 

 behind. 



"I know I am a better professional 

 for having worked so hard beside her," 

 Handal says. "Kathy left me and the 

 network better than she found us." □ 



A Lasting 

 Legacy 



a 



ver the course of her 

 career at Sea Grant, Kathy Hart 

 contributed to the North 

 Carolina program and the 

 national network in ways both 

 large and small. Some of her 

 most successful projects are: 



• Coastwatch, an award - 

 winning magazine dedicated to 

 the North Carolina coast; 



• newsletters about water 

 quality, coastal law, education 

 initiatives, seafood safety and 

 recipes, and commercial fishing; 



• a media tipsheet of Sea 

 Grant news; 



• the popular Sound Facts 

 newspaper series of illustrated 

 briefs about the coast; 



• two national forums on 

 declining fish stocks and marine 

 biotechnology; 



• the successful North 

 Carolina Big Sweep waterway 

 cleanup; 



• a World Wide Web site for 

 North Carolina Sea Grant; 



• a national media relations 

 program for Sea Grant; 



• a national strategy for the 

 Sea Grant network to communi- 

 cate the work of its agents and 

 researchers; 



• the HACCP alliance's 

 seafood safety training manuals 

 (see Autumn 1997 Coastwatch), 

 among the most important and 

 most-ordered publications ever 

 produced by Sea Grant. E 



COASTWATCH 33 



