As the land conversation manager at ClearWater Conservancy for the past seven years, Kevin Abbey works with landowners to protect and preserve their property. Abbey also works with volunteers to help evaluate conservation opportunities as well as to carry out required site monitoring and stewardship duties on conserved land.
Bringing more than 30 years of experience in community development, technical outreach, environmental management, and transportation policy to ClearWater, Abbey was previously the general manager of the Centre Area Transportation Authority. Other past roles include service in the Senate of Pennsylvania as executive director of the Transportation Committee, Penn State’s Institute of Energy and the Environment, PennTAP, and the College of Engineering. He has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to the environment.
Originally from Fenton, Michigan, Abbey earned a bachelor of science degree in zoology from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in language and literature from Central Michigan University, and has a professional certification in applied river morphology. He sat down with Town&Gown founder Mimi Barash Coppersmith in February at Liberty Craft House to discuss his most recent projects with ClearWater Conservancy and what continues to inspire him to make a difference.
Mimi: Wow, I haven’t seen you in a long time. I first met you at CATA. How long ago was that?
Kevin: That was a while ago. [My wife], Georgia, and I came here in 1984, and I was with CATA for 10½ years. I was fortunate to introduce and get the money in place for the natural gas buses.
Mimi: I remember when the first one pulled up to the entrance of the Nittany Lion Inn when I was chair of the [Penn State] board of trustees. So, between this, you’ve gone from politics to saving our precious Earth. Try to explain to me how you fit those things into your professional career. It’s a little unusual, I think.
Kevin: It is. I’ve always been an environmentalist, and even when I worked in the public transit sphere, I was always motivated by fewer trips, fewer fossil fuels, and a smaller impact from transportation. So, as a starter, and the opportunity to replace the entire bus fleet that was very old when I came here. The average bus age was 22½ years. Usually, their life expectancy is a dozen years.
Mimi: And look at what it’s grown to. You had a chance to realize a dream come true.
Kevin: Yes. And my friends that are at CATA today tell me that in terms of passengers and ridership, it’s the third-largest behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the whole state.
Mimi: Oh, wow. You had a short career in politics?
Kevin: I did. It was very bipartisan. And it was Jake Corman’s father, Doyle, who recruited me. When Tom Ridge got elected and wanted to do more with transportation revenues, then-Senator Doyle Corman recruited me to come and help. So, that’s when I left CATA after 10½ years to go help with that.
Mimi: And how long did you stay in politics?
Kevin: I was there for two years. Just long enough to know that wasn’t my cup of tea. But we were fortunate because it was a very bipartisan arrangement. Doyle got along very well with his Democratic counterpart, Barry Stout. He was a very honorable man. I learned a lot from him.
Mimi: And now you’re at one of my favorite nonprofits. Tell us a little bit about it.
Kevin: It’s an ideal job in many ways. I get to work with property owners who want to conserve their property permanently. So, a perfect example was working with Joe Meyer, his son Denny, and their family to save their farm and help them buy the one next door. It was an ideal project because the Everharts were neighbors to the Meyers, and both families had been on the land for well over a century.
I loved the moment when I asked the two Everhart brothers, at the beginning of the process, if there has ever been friction between their family and the Meyers. Jim Everhart, the older brother, thought about it for a minute. And he said to me, “Kevin, let me put it to you this way: My father was the best man in Joe Meyer’s wedding. Does that answer your question?”
Mimi: So, both of those farms are preserved into perpetuity?
Kevin: Yes, right across from the Friends School and Foxdale Village. The land will never be more intensely used than it is right now. And we helped Joe and Denny Meyer buy the neighboring farm. So, now the Meyer family owns all the way from the Calvary Baptist Church down to Branch Road.
Mimi: What are you working on now? Are you allowed to tell?
Kevin: Sure, I can. One of the ones that we’re working on right now is Brent and Cindy Pasquinelli’s property right along Slab Cabin Run next to Musser Gap. We’re hoping to execute that conservation easement later this spring.
Mimi: The world is so small. Deb Nardone (ClearWater’s executive director) grew up in Wilkes Barre. I grew up in the community over the bridge from Wilkes Barre. When I first met her, I felt like we were related, but I know we aren’t. The leadership that has been part of ClearWater Conservancy has been remarkable from every step and was the impact of a man who did so much and is not here to see how his legacy is really starting: Don Hamer.
Don Hamer was one of my best friends in business. I used to have breakfast with him once a month. We’d argue politically; we weren’t the same way politically, but I learned a lot from him, and he has left so much goodness for this community. ClearWater is a tribute to his vision.
Kevin: I would agree with that. And the other thing we’ve had going for us at ClearWater is really strong women leaders.
Mimi: Yes, it does make a difference. How many organizations can say that with such pride? Everything you do is good for humanity, into perpetuity.
Kevin: Yes, that’s one of the early concepts I had to wrap my mind around was perpetuity.
Mimi: My guess is you had to take a cut in pay?
Kevin: Yes. It worked for me because I was ready to retire from Penn State, and so Georgia and I decided that it was the right thing. So, I’ve been there seven years now.
Mimi: What do you do in your spare time?
Kevin: Georgia and I cook, and we work in the yard, a lot of gardening. We love to hike, ride bikes.
Mimi: You have wonderful children.
Kevin: We do. We’re really fortunate.
Mimi: Do they live around here?
Kevin: My daughter lives in State College, and she used to teach at the Friends School. Now she’s a co-owner of Childspace, an early, pre-elementary education program. It’s over where the Friends School elementary used to be, on Prospect Avenue. And then my son just went back to Penn State Harrisburg. He’s the major gift officer on campus. He had been at Harrisburg Area Community College as their vice president.
Mimi: Tell me a little bit about how you landed in State College.
Kevin: Well, we were in Michigan. I was working for the transit system in Lansing, which was also a CATA – Capital Area Transportation Authority. And both of our kids are adopted. We were waiting for little Noah to come to us and become part of our family.
Mimi: How old was he?
Kevin: When we moved here, he was 6 months old. We were ready for a family adventure, and I applied and fortunately passed muster with the local board. And they offered me the job. So, I came here from Lansing. We loved the town right away.
Mimi: Talk a little bit about being adoptive parents. That has to be a very special experience.
Kevin: One of the things that we really embraced in the process was that the caseworker that we worked with made clear the question of why someone would give up a child for adoption. And the answer for that caseworker and her agency was that it could only be done from love, because you realize that you’re not equipped, not mature, not ready to be the parent that this child needs. And that was a really important kind of concept for us to recognize that. It’s stepping in to help that birth parent do the right thing.
So, it lent itself very much to it being an adventure when we moved here because we rented a little place. We met the moving truck, and we spread out a blanket on the front lawn – it was in August – and we put Noah on the blanket. He was about a foot long, and we moved in while he sat there staring at the sky.
One of the real sources of joy for Georgia and me right now is that Noah has an infant, 16-month-old little girl Lucy, and she’s just learning how to walk. So, we have a baby in the family. It’s really special.
Mimi: And Noah’s wife?
Kevin: Ashley is a schoolteacher in the urban areas in Harrisburg. She teaches elementary school. We’re very blessed.
Mimi: And you have another child.
Kevin: Emmalia. She has three of her own, and when she remarried, she got a fourth. So, we have seven grandkids, and they’re all pretty local; four here, and three in Harrisburg. Our oldest grandchild, a grandson, just turned 16 yesterday.
Mimi: You have to feel exhilarated with that part of your life. You guys both have a history of jobs where you’re doing good things, where you’re not just working at a job, you’re working at a mission. How did you get that way?
Kevin: I think for both Georgia and I, a big part of it was we had an inspirational parent – my mother, her father – who really compelled us to do and make good decisions. And then we grew up in an era – we were college students in the 1960s in Ann Arbor – where we were very much concerned about trying to make the world a better place.
Mimi: You’ve left your footsteps in a lot of places. And now your footsteps are in a way doing God’s work, when you think about it, preserving the land, the natural resources of this incredible region. How do we get more of you?
Kevin: ClearWater’s working on that, trying to cultivate more and more young people and more and more volunteers. That’s been one of Deb’s really special talents is enabling us to reach out with Centred Outdoors and getting people outside and helping people to understand that.
Mimi: We live in a remarkable community despite our differences. Another nonprofit actually has made it possible for you to do some of your major work, Centre Foundation. I mean that grant (Centre Inspires, to create Centred Outdoors) made a real continuing impact.
Kevin: Yes. And it feeds right into the notion of using nature as a remedy for health.
Mimi: Your wife, who is scheduled to retire in a few months, has built Leadership Centre County into one of those forces that helps other people become involved and better leaders in the community.
Is there anything I should ask you that I didn’t ask you?
Kevin: I would say that with Georgia’s organization that I embrace, I had a bird’s eye view over all the years. One of the things that is so amazing about the functional component is that it helps adults make friends. And that’s difficult under any circumstances, but particularly in a college town where the age groups can get involved with their work or with their kids. The networking and friendship-building is wonderful.
Mimi: It’s really been a pleasure to get to know you better.
Kevin: Thanks, Mimi.
