Janet Wilder Dakin (June 3, 1910 – October 7, 1994), was an American philanthropist and zoologist, known for her animal advocacy and environmental work. Biography Janet Frances Wilder was born in China, the daughter of Isabella Niven and Amos Parker Wilder. She was the youngest of several siblings who would become well known in adulthood: theologist and poet Amos Niven Wilder, author Thornton Wilder, poet Charlotte Wilder and writer Isabel Wilder. In 1906, her father was appointed the United States Consul General in Hong Kong and in 1909, he was assigned to a similar position in Shanghai, where he served until 1914. Janet lived with her family in China for a few years, but when the country became unstable, they returned to the United States, where they lived in Berkeley, California. She graduated from high school in New Haven, Connecticut. In college, she received her B.A in zoology, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in 1933, and her M.A. in biology in 1935, both from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1939 and taught zoology at Mount Holyoke until 1941 when she married Winthrop S. Dakin. Known as Toby, he was a lawyer and later one of the first trustees of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Between 1936 and 1940, Dakin authored several published papers reflecting her studies of insect life. In the 1950s she wrote a series of articles for Morgan Horse Magazine in which she described her experiences raising a Morgan horse. These articles were published in 1990 as a book called "Jeffy's Journal." Dakin raised and rode horses and served on the Mount Holyoke College Equestrian Center Steering Committee from 1983 to 1986, which was intent on creating an equestrian center at Mount Holyoke College. While volunteering with the League of Women Voters, Dakin began studying the use of the parliamentary process by organizations and earned her certification as a Professional Parliamentarian from the American Institute of Parliamentarians. With those skills, she was named parliamentarian for conventions of the League of Women Voters and for the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College. Conservation efforts Janet Dakin consistently promoted state and federal legislative action intended to preserve open lands for wildlife, and make it available to the public for recreational and educational purposes. She was the first chairperson of the Blue Start Highway, a beautification project for