Longtime Southwest Floridian Nick Penniman passed away on Sept. 29 at the age of 88. He and his wife Linda moved to Naples in 2000 after visiting for several decades.
Mr. Penniman began his career as a journalist, first at the Illinois State Journal-Register before joining the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1975, where he rose to be publisher for 14 years. He was a lifelong advocate for the outdoor world - serving in St. Louis as chairman of Forest Park Forever and of Great Rivers Greenway. He also served on the board of American Rivers.
Here in Southwest Florida, Penniman was chair emeritus of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and a trustee of the Everglades Foundation. He was also chair emeritus of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center - and a Florida Master Naturalist - and he served on 33 nonprofit boards over the course of his life, including the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
He was also a lifelong advocated for freedom of the press and the crucial role trustworthy news was to maintaining a healthy democracy. Today, we revisit a conversation we had with Nick Penniman in 2021 when he released his book, “On the Knife: A History of Sugar in Florida.” It was one of five books he published.
This conversation originally aired on Sept. 27, 2021.
The long and winding history of the sugar industry in the United States is complicated to say the least. The new book “On the Knife: A History of Sugar in Florida” tries to distill that story into a narrative of the experimentation and entrepreneurship, and the politics and money, that has led to the modern sugar industry as we know it today. It also delves into the human health and environmental impacts that the sugar industry plays a part in.
We’re joined today by its author, Nick Penniman. He spent his career in journalism, and was publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and VP of newspaper operations for Pulitzer Publishing Company. He’s currently chair emeritus of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, a trustee of the Everglades Foundation, and chair emeritus of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
You can also listen to another conversation we had about the history of public lands in Southwest Florida that Mr. Penniman participated in here.
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