A farewell to Trustees’ co-founder Rod Cameron—Alaska News Brief September 2026
This week, our attorneys argued before a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a case that goes back many years and bridges our founding in 1974 with our work today. Our appeal involves the leasing of lands in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—lands sacred to our lead client and essential to the health of caribou, wildlife, Arctic ways of life, and the Earth herself.
Courthouse where Trustees argued before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals September 15, 2026. Photo by Suzanne Bostrom.
Back in 1974, our founders knew Alaska needed a public interest law firm focused on protecting land, water, wildlife, and Alaska ways of life. By then, industry sought Prudhoe Bay oil and an array of oil and gas projects were underway, with the Trans Alaska Pipeline already in play.
Rod Cameron and Peg Tileston were the driving forces behind Trustees. They knew Alaska needed a small but mighty environmental law firm to stand up in court. They knew environmental issues would not go away. They understood what’s at stake and that the work demands enduring commitment.
Trustees’ founders Peg Tileston and Rod Cameron at a 2014 board event in Seattle.
Sadly, we lost Rod last month. He made Seattle his home for most of his life, where he lived with his wife, Heather Howard. They both worked in law and supported numerous cultural and civic groups in Seattle, and continued staying involved with and contributing to Trustees for Alaska.
Rod graduated from West Point in 1961 and joined the Environmental Defense Fund in 1970. The Defense Fund, a national coalition of lawyers and scientists, set landmark legal precedents back then, including a national ban on the pesticide DDT and petitions to remove lead from gasoline.
Rod worked as the Defense Fund’s executive director in those years and took on Alaska issues like the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. He was later the founder and senior partner of the Cameron Law Office in Seattle. Over the decades, he served as a founding member of Trustees’ board and with the board of the Hanford Challenge, which worked to clean up the Hanford nuclear site in eastern Washington.
A few years ago, Rod explained his early Alaska work centered as advocating for the protection of ecological systems and the purpose of founding an Alaska firm as filling a key role in that work.
“My experience with the [pipeline] litigation and with the dedicated Alaskans involved (especially Peg Tileston!), who were determined to protect Alaska, made me realize there needed to be a strong, ongoing, local legal team to advocate for and protect Alaska,” he said in an interview about Trustees’ founding and 50th anniversary. “I was especially impressed by learning that if Alaska were divided into two equal parts, Texas would become the third largest state in the union. That drove home to me the magnitude of the need, made more critical by the unique environments, risks, and opportunities in Alaska.”
Rod and Heather with their grandbaby. Photo courtesy of Heather Howard.
Though based on the East Coast back then, Rod heard regularly from eventual Trustees’ board members Peg Tileston and Bob Childers about what was happening on the ground in Alaska.
Rod used his fundraising connections to cover a trip to Alaska to get a first-hand view. He left the Environmental Defense Fund and moved to Seattle but continued working to create Trustees. This took quite some time. Peg was getting nervous since it had been nearly two years since the initial funding had been received, and they still hadn’t hired a lawyer.
Then, in walks Bill Rice, an attorney at Alaska Legal Services in the early 1970s. Bill had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Village of English Bay (now Nanwalek) with Mike Frank, who eventually worked as an attorney with Trustees much later. When Bill met Rod in Seattle and talked about the new executive director position, Trustees was off and running.
I didn’t meet Rod until 2014 when we had a fundraiser in Seattle that honored Rod and Peg. Since then, I met with Rod and Heather regularly when visiting Seattle and have always felt so grateful to get to know them both and talk with the East Coast environmental lawyer who saw the need for Trustees so long ago. I treasure the time I’ve spent with Rod and Heather and will continue to visit Heather, who has been a special part of Trustees.
The fight continues. Photo by Suzanne Bostrom.
It’s remarkable to see the scope of work Trustees takes on today. Rod and Peg wisely saw the need for an Alaska law firm to focus on Alaska issues and represent the interests of clean water, intact landscapes, healthy fish and wildlife, lasting stewardship, and the concerns of all living beings impacted by industrial extraction projects.
It’s true that there really are no words that do justice to the loved ones we lose. All of us at Trustees feel such enormous gratitude for being part of what Rod and Peg envisioned and part of their legacy.
In that 50th anniversary story about the founding of Trustees, Rod said, “my fondest hopes are for Trustees for Alaska’s continued informed, forceful, and effective advocacy on behalf of Arctic peoples and the Arctic ecosystem.”
That’s precisely why we were in court this week. Thank you, Rod.
PS. Thanks to supporters like you, we can continue fighting to protect Alaska’s land, water, air, wildlife and people.
The western Arctic. Courtesy of www.protectthearctic.org.
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Stacy with Pasagshak Bay in 2023. By Mike Sirofchuck