Several years ago while I was working as the Sculptor-in-residence at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic site in Cornish, NH I met Marty Talbot. She was touring the site with a group of people from the non-for-profit organization The Student Conservation Association or SCA. We shared mutual friends at the organization one of which made it a point to introduce me to Marty. Later that week I received a call from Marty inquiring about the possibility of me creating a coin to pay tribute to a dear friend of theirs (Marty and husband Lee Talbot) for another Organization that she was involved with.

I believe that initial introduction to Marty took place in the summer of 2002 and after several years and many emails we commenced working on the design for the medallion in  October of 2007. With a tremendous amount of work put forth by Marty and Lee Talbot along with the support of the IUCN the design has been created and approved.

Thanks to all those involved it is a great honor to be chosen to create this medallion to honor such a distinguished man.