Dr. Shepard Krech Jr.

Dr Shepard Krech, Jr. of Easton MD died February 11, 2008, at the age of 89. The son of the late Dr. Shepard and Mary Stevens Chapin Krech, he was born in New York on April 24, 1918. He graduated from Groton School in 1937, Yale College in 1941 where he was a member of Scroll and Key and the 150-pound Football Team, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, in 1944. Following service as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps, U.S. Naval Reserves, 1943-45, and further medical training at Presbyterian, Roosevelt, Bellevue and Lennox Hill Hospitals from 1944-48, he moved with his family to Easton, MD where, except for 1953-54 in the Naval Reserves stationed in Guam, he was a general practitioner and family doctor until he retired in 1974. An avid sportsman and dedicated conservationist, he spent the years following his retirement from the medical profession working on behalf of non-governmental organizations and on gubernatorial-appointed commissions. Dedicated to the preservation of farmland and the health of the Chesapeake Bay, he was an early proponent of minimizing the use of herbicides and insecticides, buffering their impact on watersheds, and controlling residential development along the shores of the bay and its tributaries. In 1995, the Maryland Chapter of the Nature Conservancy awarded him its Conservation Achievement Award for extraordinary contributions to Conservancy goals. A co-founder of the Maryland chapter of the Nature Conservancy, he served as trustee and chairman of that organization, president of the Wildfowl Trust of North America, chairman of Ducks Unlimited in Talbot County, and trustee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In the 1970s he was appointed to the Wye Island Advisory Committee after the state of Maryland halted a major developer’s plans for a dense waterside village on this island (his role in the controversy is detailed in the book Wye Island), and from 1984-96 he served as a member of successive Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas Commissions. He also served as president of the Talbot County Board of Education during the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education, chief of staff of the Memorial Hospital, Easton, vice-president of the Interstate Post-Graduate Medical Society, and he taught anatomy and physiology at the School of Nursing at Memorial Hospital, Easton. He was a member of the American Medical Association, Blue Hill Country Club, Boone and Crockett Club, Chesapeake Bay Yacht Club, and a founding member of the Legal Limit Dove Club. For over 20 years he was president of the Board of Trustees of the American Memorial Hospital in Reims, France, and in 1976 was awarded the Legion of Honor. He will be remembered as a physician who opened his office to all regardless of race when he arrived in Talbot County in 1948, and who worked with others to make Memorial Hospital in Easton available to black people in its entirety, not just in the basement; as a family doctor who took great pride in house calls at all hours, by boat if necessary, and who accepted payment in kind; as an accomplished fisherman who, on the Spey River, unfailingly paid his bar bill with salmon; and as a crack shot, second to none in his prime on upland and water birds as well as big game; as fiercely competitive in sports, games, and life, and never shy about voicing opinions; and as a tireless and passionate advocate for the environment. His wife Nora Potter Krech, whom he married on August 14, 1940, predeceased him, as did his sister, Mary Krech Gould and his brother Alvin W. Krech. Dr. Krech is survived by a daughter, Amy K. Knowles of Islamorada, Florida; a son, Shepard Krech III of Washington, D.C., Providence, RI and Sedgwick, ME; a brother, Merrill Chapin Krech of Coral Gables, FL; four grandchildren, Barnes and Carter Knowles, Kerry Morrison, and Teal Paynter; and six great-grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at Old Wye Church, Wye Mills, MD on Saturday February 23, 2008 at 2:00 PM. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Chesapeake Bay Foundation,162 Prince George Street, Annapolis, MD 21401 or Pickering Creek Audubon Center, 11450 Audubon Lane, Easton MD 21601. Arrangements are by Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, P.A., Easton, MD.