William David Foreman (October 18, 1946 – September 19, 2022) was an American advocate for the conservation of wild lands and wildlife. He was a co-founder of three organizations: Earth First!, the Wildlands Project, and the Rewilding Institute. A prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement beginning in the 1980s, his advocacy and actions shifted in the early 1990s into collaborations with professionals in the field of conservation biology. Early life and education William David Foreman was born on October 18, 1946 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His father was a United States Air Force sergeant and later an air traffic controller. Foreman attended San Antonio Junior College before transferring to the University of New Mexico, from which he graduated in 1967 with a degree in history. Early career In his early life he was active in conservative politics, campaigning for Barry Goldwater and forming the Young Americans for Freedom conservative youth chapter on his junior college campus. In 1968, Foreman joined the U.S. Marine Corps' Marine Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia and received an undesirable discharge after 61 days. He then worked as a teacher at a Zuni Indian reservation in New Mexico, where he also worked as a farrier. Activism and environmentalist work The Wilderness Society Between 1973 and 1980, he worked for The Wilderness Society as Southwest Regional Representative in New Mexico and the Director of Wilderness Affairs in Washington, DC. Earth First! In April 1980, Foreman and friends Howie Wolke, Ron Kezar, Bart Koehler, and Mike Roselle took a week-long hiking trip in the Pinacate Desert. It was during this trip that Foreman is believed to have coined the phrase "Earth First!" The movement that subsequently bore that name was inspired, in some part, by the writings of Edward Abbey, author of the novel The Monkeywrench Gang. The group used direct action tactics, and in contrast with the cautious lobbying efforts of the established environmental organizations, "monkeywrenching"—industrial sabotage traditionally associated with labor struggles—would become the chief tactic of the Earth First! movement in the 1980s. The Earth First! Journal, which grew out of the Earth First! newsletter, was edited by Foreman. In its first issue, Foreman set out the organization's goals: "We will not make political compromises. Let the other outfits do that. EARTH FIRST will set forth the pure, hard-line, radical position of those who believe in the Earth first." Some mainstream environmentalists and others