The superlatives assigned to Sir David Attenborough seem never to stop. Producer of the most watched nature documentaries in the world. The most traveled person in the world. The oldest person to visit the North Pole. The most trustworthy person in Britain.
My own close brush with his presence was on a visit to the Cambridge Conservation Initiative in 2016. Their newly remodeled home was named the Attenborough Building in his honor, and it featured a soaring four-story living wall in its atrium. Attenborough, then just turned 90, appeared at the opening ceremony. But he entered not on a red carpet, but like we would expect David Attenborough to do—he rappelled down the wall from the top, landing with nonchalant grace, as though it were the only reasonable option.
David Attenborough was born on May 8, 1926, in a London suburb and he grew up in the English midlands town of Leicester. He was always interested in nature, collecting bird eggs and fossils from a young age. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge before serving in the Royal Navy. But he never worked as a scientist, instead enticed into the world of writing and broadcasting.
He was particularly attracted by the new world of television. In 1950, he began training with the BBC and soon became a television producer. Being on the air seemed unlikely, because his teeth were considered too big! He overcame that obstacle quickly, however, his charm, demeanor and gift for commentary trumping any dental deficits. He hosted a quiz show (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?) and another that brought animals into the studio.
Attenborough thought the studio format was limiting and stressful to the animals, and convinced the executives to let him produce a series filmed in the wild, Zoo Quest. And the rest, as they say, is history. The success of that show led to his assignment to lead a natural history group at the BBC and later, in 1965, to direct programming for the BBC (of note, Attenborough had the foresight to add a strange new comedy to their line-up; it was called Monty Python’s Flying Circus!).
Read MoreApril is Keep America Beautiful Month
Back in 1971, The Keep America Beautiful organization teamed up with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to create Keep American Beautiful Day. It was expanded in 1982 to a week, and then to the entire month of April in 1984. As spring takes hold of the weather and the landscape awaken with the greening of trees and grasses, the blooming of wildflowers and the melodies of nesting songbirds, we, too, ought to take special notice of our beautiful environment—and do something to, as they say, keep it beautiful.
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