This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Services will be held Friday for Nina Dougherty, a leading air-quality activist from a generation ago who also fought against Legacy Highway. She died Saturday of Parkinson's disease at the age of 82.
"Nina was a powerhouse. She was an example and a mentor. We have a host of self-actualized, aggressive air-quality activists these days and Nina was the model for that," said Mark Clemens, who was a young Sierra Club volunteer when he first met Dougherty and is continuing the effort now with the club's Utah chapter.
"With her background as a research librarian, she was very meticulously organized and a formidably informed expert on a range of air-quality issues," he added. "She was always in total command of her position in a way that made the scientists and attorneys on the other side much more careful about their preparations. It was impressive."
Kathy Van Dame, the Wasatch Clean Air Coalition policy director, also described Dougherty as a mentor "who always had her ducks in a row."
Beyond that, she added, Dougherty "had a lovely personality. I had many regulators at [the state Division of] Air Quality tell me how well she was regarded because of her great working style. She was a good model."
A native of Columbus, Ohio, who obtained degrees in anthropology and library science from the University of Wisconsin, Dougherty came to Utah in 1974.
She worked until 1998 at the University of Utah Eccles Health Sciences Library, also serving as an adjunct in the U. Medical School's department of medical informatics.
That scientific background and research capability made her a cause-driving force as a Sierra Club volunteer, said Lawson LeGate, now retired but back then the club's southwest region representative.
"Nina was the reason the Sierra Club got involved in that whole issue of particulate pollution here in Utah," LeGate said. In a similar way, her opposition to the Legacy Highway also helped stimulate the push for more and better transit along the Wasatch Front.
"She would never take all the credit, but Nina got us involved in issues to protect the health of the people of Utah and elsewhere," he added.
Those issues included the fight against regional haze and the development of regulations requiring refineries to produce cleaner-burning fuels, Van Dame noted.
Dougherty is survived by her husband, Richard, two children, two grandchildren and three siblings. Her service will be at 11 a.m. at First Unitarian Church, 569 S. 1300 East, in Salt Lake City.
Nina Dougherty
1933-2016