Cleveland Amory was the quintessential OMG.
Born into an established Boston family in 1917, he attended Harvard and was president of the Harvard Crimson (the school’s newspaper). After graduation became the youngest editor ever of The Saturday Evening Post.
During his professional career, he wrote novels, satire, social commentary, and appeared regularly on NBC’s Today Show, as well.
He did what he was passionate about and what he was good at, an important characteristic of an OMG.
He also gave back, a second important characteristic of an OMG.
In the early 1980s, Amory founded the nonprofit group the Fund for Animals. The organization transported over 500 wild burros in the Grand Canyon National Park to safety (the US federal government had slated them for slaughter.) Then the organization saved the wild goats on San Clemente Island in California, which were also on the government’s target list. Then it publicized the annual slaughter of baby harp seals off the coast of Canada, subsequently bringing that practice to a slow, but permanent halt.
By the time Amory died in 1998, the Fund for Animals had 200,000 members worldwide. His 400+ acre Black Beauty Ranch in Texas still operates as an animal sanctuary today.
OMG Rules for Living: do what you love, give back what you can.
I looked him up on the Internet. I’m not certain if the photo will come through but there is one photo in particular that caught my eye. He is sitting in front of an over-stuffed bookshelf. He read all of those books and still had time to help animals and live his life.
Yes, he made quite a contribution. Thanks, Melissa. – BGT