Pa. county honors longtime preservationist

Meander along Routes 82 and 162 near Unionville and Chester County's equestrian milieu beckons - acres of pristine pasture and gurgling waterways.

These are vistas that energize Nancy L. Mohr, who was honored this month for decades of land preservation and community outreach, including her role in keeping Disney from buying thousands of acres of open land in 1984.

The multitasking septuagenarian stepped down in July after nine years at the helm of Chester County 2020, a Kennett Square nonprofit that focuses on quality-of-life issues.

A sign of Mohr's successful outreach? The emcee for an evening at the Loch Nairn Farmhouse to honor the preservationist was developer W. Joseph Duckworth.

Unlikely alliances are a Mohr specialty, explained Duckworth, of Arcadia Land Co. in Wayne. He said Mohr shared his interest in smart growth and walkable communities.

The tribute to Mohr lasted about two hours and involved a dozen speakers - and that was barely enough to cover her awards and achievements. Carol Aichele, chairwoman of the Chester County commissioners, called her "the mother of open-space preservation in Chester County." Peter Hausmann, chairman of Natural Lands Trust Inc., applauded the "march for sanity" Mohr led for 30 years.

"The way she did it was to get people to talk to each other," said Hausmann.

Mohr also deployed a secret weapon: warm cookies from the oven at Sevynmor, the Newlin Township farmhouse where she and her husband of 54 years, John, raised five children.

"She's very disarming," said John P. Goodall of the Brandywine Conservancy's Environmental Management Center. "She'll take people to a place of agreement. . . . That's her talent."

H. William Sellers, a former director of the Environmental Management Center, said he and Mohr had worked together on the acquisition of the King Ranch, a steer-raising compound that occupied a chunk of five townships.

In 1984, after rumors that the Disney Corp. was eyeing the tract, the conservancy and a residents' group completed the biggest privately funded land-conservation deal in the country. They bought 5,367 acres, protected it with conservation easements, and carved out a 771-acre preserve.

John B. "Jock" Hannum Jr., chairman of Chester County 2020's board, said Mohr's environmental impact was tough to measure because her work often had involved groups with regional reach, such as the Brandywine Conservancy.

"In a quiet way, she exhibited such passion with an emphasis on sustainability," he said.

A native of Bronxville, N.Y., Mohr and her husband moved to Chester County in 1964 after he changed jobs.

A frequent newspaper contributor, she has written books on barns and farmhouses and on her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College. She also wrote a biography of Nancy Penn Smith Hannum, the late doyenne of Chester County foxhunting and a fellow conservationist. She taught English to middle schoolers at Upland Country Day School for 10 years before becoming the school's development director.

Mohr said several factors had swayed her decision to leave her post. Stepping down - but not out, she stressed - allowed her to focus on recovering from a stroke last fall. It also made way for a new generation of leadership and gave her more time for her 13 grandchildren.

Mohr said her greatest asset in activism was her family, which not only tolerated but participated in projects - not all of which succeeded.

"Everyone has bumps," she said.

One occurred in the mid-1990s when Wal-Mart planned to build midway between Longwood Gardens and Kennett Square. Mohr and others mobilized in opposition, but 39 meetings later, the store was approved, though not without conditions.

"We got some traffic-pattern changes that reduced the negative impact," she said.

Besides her family, Mohr said, "making connections with people" was her greatest thrill. She said she had met actor Jack Palance at an equestrian event and ended up working with him on a benefit for mentally ill children in Hollywood. She thumbed through a Town & Country magazine on the coffee table of former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, made a contact at the magazine, and became a regular contributor.

In the late '90s, she assisted on a project to create a 24-foot-tall bronze horse from sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. During nine trips to Milan, where the sculpture was presented to Italy as a goodwill gift, she marveled at the network of Holyoke alums who provided assistance. She chronicled the unveiling in a 1998 cover story for Smithsonian magazine.

Her reach and influence eventually extended beyond the county. Mohr played a key role in developing Landscapes, which has become a state model for managing community growth.

But it was Chester County 2020 that offered her an ideal way to continue probing the power of discourse, Mohr said. One of the group's initiatives is the community conversation, a forum for bringing people together to discuss concerns. Topics, selected by consensus, have included education and water quality.

"People generally move to Chester County because they value its charm, its beauty, its history," Mohr said. "So if you begin by focusing on that common ground, people become engaged and are often motivated to find more agreement."

Her best advice: "Keep up the conversation."