Mammoth Times Staff/Special to The Inyo Register
4-4-2009

There are perhaps a handful of people who embody the natural beauty and stalwart presence of the Eastern Sierra as did Andrea Mead Lawrence.
She was born April 19, 1932 in Rutland County, Vt. Her family owned and operated the Pico Peak ski area where she began skiing at the age of 3. At 10, she started racing and by 15 she qualified for the 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where she placed 35th in the Downhill, 8th in the Slalom and 21st in Combined.

When Mead was 19, she won two gold medals, in Slalom and Giant Slalom, at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway, to become the only American woman to take home two gold medals in skiing from the same Olympics. Time Magazine acknowledged Mead’s contribution to the sport by putting her on the cover of its Jan. 21 issue of that year.

Ski legend and environmental icon Andrea Mead Lawrence (1932-2009) in Snowcreek Meadow. Mammoth Times photo by Sue Morning

In 1956, she went to the Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Winter Olympic Games where she placed 4th in Giant Slalom. She was the only American alpine skier to compete in three Olympics and one of only four women in the world to do so at that time.
Mead was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1958 and was the torch lighter at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif. – the first woman to carry the torch into the lighting ceremony. She has since been recognized by Sports Illustrated as Vermont’s greatest athlete of the 20th century.
Mead married fellow racer David Lawrence in 1955 and the couple moved to Aspen, Colo., in the 1960s where she became a member of the town planning board. She divorced in 1967 and moved to Mammoth Lakes in 1968 with her five children, Corty, Didi, Leslie, Matthew and Quentin.
Lawrence became an environmental activist as her focus moved from the slopes to the landscape itself. She founded the Friends of Mammoth, a citizen advocacy group, and chaired its successful legal action resulting in the landmark California Supreme Court case, Friends of Mammoth v. Mono County (1972).
She went on to be a Mono County Supervisor from 1983 to 1999 and Represented Mono County before the U.S. Congress to support a National Academy of Science Study on Mono Basin. She later testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Mono Lake National Forest Scenic Area (approved),  the Bodie Protection Act (approved), the California Wilderness Act and the Desert Protection Act.  Lawrence also helped found the Southern Mono Historical Society in 1983, the Sierra Nevada Alliance in 1993 and the Sierra Nevada Regional Initiative in 2000 before creating the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers (ALIMAR) in 2003, a nonprofit Eastern Sierra conservation organization.
In 1999, Andrea Mead Lawrence was selected as Honorary State Park Ranger due to her direct support to the efforts of California State Park Ranger Association, for her advocacy of California’s State Parks and for a lifetime of contribution to the conservation movement.
She was honored as the Greatest Winter Olympian of all time by sports filmmaker Bud Greenspan for her contributions both athletically and the work she had done for her community.
Lawrence was also the recipient of the Sierra Business Council’s Vision 20/20 Lifetime Achievement Award for her efforts to secure the economic and environmental health of the Sierra Nevada for future generations.
Andrea Mead Lawrence was a leader in protecting the county’s open spaces, wildlife habitat, recreation areas, water resources and air quality.  Her presence will continue to be felt in the Eastern Sierra and she will never be forgotten.
The honest tragedy of her passing is not that she is gone, but that the rest of us must continue on with the loss.
That loss will not tarnish the honor of having known her, worked beside her, and lived in a community with her.
Her life has taught us that the race does not end with gold medals or divorce – that we do not rest on our laurels after winning a landmark court case, nor do we quit when the doctor says it’s cancer.
The lesson of her life was that from the moment you leave the starting gates, you have to give 150 percent.
Andrea Mead Lawrence passed away in her home just after midnight on March 31, 2009. She had been suffering from Leiomyosarcoma (cancer of the soft/connective tissue). All her five children and grandchildren were with her in her last hours.
The news of President Obama’s signing the wilderness bill into law was still fresh and members of the Mammoth community mentioned the serendipity of the two landmarks coming within 12 hours of each other.
A handful of people contributed their remembrances of Lawrence:

“She was the most beautiful, elegant and dynamic person I’ve ever known, without question. Her influence went far beyond skiing. She was an enormous resource for and contributor to the county; she was probably the best supervisor we’ve ever had.”

“Andrea always respected the local situation, people and environment. She would tell me, ‘don’t say no...say how...’ always looking for a way to reach an acceptable solution for as many people as possible. We’re going to really miss her.”

“How do you encapsulate someone like Andrea in a few words? She was larger than life. A true visionary, she leaves behind a legacy greater than herself, which is the real measure of a person. I will always remember her indomitable spirit and fiercely held values – respect for the landscape, love of open space and its freedoms, and belief in the soul of a community. I will miss her deeply, but her spirit is such a part of the Eastern Sierra that I know she will never truly be gone. “

“Andrea Lawrence was a tower of power in Mono County and will never be forgotten for her efforts on behalf of the natural world and for the people who live here.”

“The community of Mammoth has lost one of its great citizens, Mother Nature has lost one of her strongest advocates, and I have lost a very close friend. I will miss her terribly.”

“I didn’t know her personally, but she was an icon and extremely important in my own career, especially in that I aspired to accomplish what she had. She came to see me in the hospital (after Boothe’s tragic ski accident). Andrea was just very supportive and tough as nails. I knew that toughness was an important aspect that encouraged me to be more and more the same. In fact, she rode in the ambulance with me from the mountain to the hospital.”

“It comes as a surprise that she actually passed. I’ve known her for 25 years, before and after she was a Mono County supervisor. I worked with her on saving our paramedic system when it was in jeopardy. She worked with me on several different issues for the county and was a powerful force for the entire region. She will be missed.”

“I will miss Andrea. She provided me a compass during a very tough election cycle. Very few in Mono County have to live through that and she had sage advice and direction for me. I learned from her that you must fight for what you think is right, even if it costs you. Her lifetime achievements were all hard-won battles, and that she got to see the Wilderness Bill signed into law is amazing.”

“She was truly an icon of conservation and environmentalism. Being the icon she was she was an inspiration to multitudes of people. I admired her fortitude on political issues. She motivated me to become involved in public lands issues, which played a significant role in what I’m doing today. She passed away when a major lands bill was signed into law. She worked hard on lands issues for many years. I truly admired her. It’s a great loss to our community.”

“Andrea had a guiding vision of how community, economy and ecological integrity should be integrated in a way that preserves the vitality of each and enhances the whole. Andrea had an unerring ability to clearly see how balance could be struck and the fierce tenacity to fight to restore balance in places like Mono Lake, where the scales had tipped too far for too long.”