Midpen’s 50th anniversary celebrations would not be complete without recognizing Nonette Hanko. She spearheaded the grassroots movement that led to the creation of Midpen by voters in 1972, and served 46 consecutive years on our publicly elected board of directors from 1972-2018. This year, she was selected as a local conservation hero by the Bay Nature Institute, and we are celebrating this well-deserved award and her legacy as a champion of open space.
Hanko was born and raised on the Peninsula where a love of music and time spent in nature shaped her childhood. An aspiring concert pianist, she studied music at San Francisco State University before marrying and moving to Palo Alto in 1950.
In the late 1960s, a recall of Palo Alto City Council members and Stanford University’s proposed development of Coyote Hill began drawing Hanko out to public meetings.
“I’d lost the wild places I had as a little girl. In Palo Alto there were NO TRESPASSING signs all the way to Skyline. Coyote Hill was one of the few places I could go and hear nothing but bird song,” Hanko said in recalling why she’d wanted to create Midpen.
Palo Alto Times reporter Jay Thorwaldson published an editorial on February 16, 1970, proposing that if conservationists really wanted to preserve land on the rapidly developing Peninsula, they should follow the lead of the East Bay community in creating an agency capable of acquiring land in the public trust. After reading it, Hanko cried herself to sleep and awoke the next morning inspired to take action.
She planned a meeting at her house, inviting everyone she knew who might be able to help create a local open space district. Over homemade blueberry coffeecake, Hanko galvanized a movement that has shaped our region.
“It’s a dream come true, being able to do something about saving our open spaces for people and animals. There is still land that needs to be acquired and trails we need to connect. When you’re building something important, and we’re still building it, you never lose that joy.”