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in memoriam

Patrick Columbus Wall

1945 - 2014

This photo was taken at the back door of our bungalow in West Hollywood. No other photo I've ever seen of him captures Patrick's intensity the way this one does.

Bo and Boogie were two of Patrick’s rescued dogs. Both of them came from the streets. Bo (the black and tan) was a prince among dogs, very noble. Boggie was a funny little girl who was rescued as a puppie, scooped out of the gutter on La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles. No idea how she got there. The two dogs would howl at sirens, which was hysterical, because Boogie was always wavering out of tune.

What a night it was! Of course we never had gotten so dressed up before. About half way through the awards program, Patrick began scribbling an acceptance speech. He knew he was going to win. And how wonderful then to sit in the darkened theatre with the Emmy on my lap. I have to say it was absolutely one of the most exciting nights of my life. We stayed out late after the event. One place we went was to a professional photographer’s studio, who took this picture.

We both could look pretty good when we got cleaned up to go out, which didn’t happen very often. We worked very hard all the time. I remember that it was a treat to actually rent and watch a movie.

A global perspective. Taken at the home of dear friends, Yuichi and Midori Hattori, this photo is symbolic of Patrick’s commitment to the planet rather than any particular country. He had a great grasp of international politics and could absorb details about international relations that were well beyond average.

Domino was the beautiful Great Dane who came with me to California in 1977. This photo of Patrick and Domino was taken by John Denos, our neighbor, and really shows the bond between the two of them. Patrick said he learned more about interspecies communication from Domino than from any other animal.

Patrick loved to sail. This photo was taken the weekend of my 50th birthday, when several of us went sailing to Anacapa Island. Only Patrick and the captain could fully enjoy it. The rest of us were in various stages of seasickness most of the trip.

Patrick lived on a locally made sail boat on the barrier reef off Belize for six months. He had many beautiful stories to tell about that time, but the best was the story of how he made friends with dolphins there. They gave him fish. He gave them oranges. He swam with them. It was this relationship that inspired him to go to Japan to free dolphins awaiting slaughter. Read the story of the Japanese campaign.

Treeman While I was working for a P.R. firm and United Yellow Pages was one of our clients. Patrick came up with the idea for a phone book recycling campaign, and it was the first phone book publisher-sponsored recycling campaign in the country. We gave people tree seedlings in exchange for their recycled phone book. This was a publicity shot with Patrick in the tree costume rented from Western Costume in L.A.

The life of Patrick Columbus Wall

Patrick Columbus Wall was an Emmy Award winning environmental activist, animal rescuer and 1980s Greenpeace volunteer, originally from Newfoundland, Canada.

Wall had a great love for animals and helped rescue many dogs, cats and birds over nearly half a century. He remained active in environmental issues throughout his life.

In 1988 Patrick won an Emmy Award for a micro-budget documentary on pollution in Marina del Rey, and he helped establish recycling services in the City of West Hollywood. He publicized environmental problems via a public access TV program, “Earth Alert,” that led to resolutions. Topics included the presence of a UCLA nuclear reactor, a threat to the USC Rose Garden, and the cleanup of “Mother’s Beach” in Marina Del Rey.

In 1984, Wall and his then-wife Janet Bridgers established Earth Alert, an environmental media organization. Among Earth Alert’s initiatives was the cleanup of Santa Monica Bay. This led to Wall and Bridgers connecting with activists who had previously been involved in the 1972 passage of Proposition 20 and the establishment of the California Coastal Commission.

In recent years, Wall fed his passion for sustainable gardening by earning a degree in horticulture and completing the LA County Common Ground Garden Program. For five years he contributed time and dedication as a volunteer for the USDA Master Gardener program, teaching low-income residents to grow supplemental foods. He established Green Stuff, consulting for various organizations and assisting homeowners by building raised beds for backyard gardening.

Wall is survived by brothers John, Michael and James Wall; sisters Agnes, Marie and Veronica; and numerous nephews, nieces, grand-nephews and -nieces, and cousins, most of whom live in Canada, as well as his ex-wife, Janet Marie Bridgers of Albuquerque.

“I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails in the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is only a ribbon of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, ‘There! She’s gone!’ Gone where? Gone from my sight -- that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her, and just at that moment when someone at my side says, ‘There! She is gone!’ there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout There! She comes!’ And that is dying.”

From The Hebrew Midrash
Interpretation by Colonel David “Mickey” Marcus

Articles and Video

San Francisco Chronicle
This is the wire service story and photo that announced Patrick’s sentencing in Japan after his two months of jail time for freeing the dolphins.

The Beast
In this article, probably published in 1982, Patrick describes in detail his rescue of dolphins in Japan.
click to see full article enlarged

Fairfield County Advocate
It has never been previously revealed that Patrick was the Greenpeace activist who liberated the beluga whale the U.S. Navy was using to retrieve torpedoes.
click to see full article enlarged

Greenpeace Newsletter
The Greenpeace Newsletter from Spring 1982 cover photo shows Patrick Wall spraying a baby harp seal with green paint. Greenpeace did not mention Patrick (or any of the other individual activists) by name, but that was him.

Agenda
This is another version of the story of the release of the dolphins in Japan.
click to see full article enlarged

Globe and Mail
A photo taken on the same 1982 seal campaign illustrated a front-page Globe and Mail article published two years later. This time, Patrick received mention in the photo caption. The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper.
click to see full article enlarged

Editor & Publisher
This trade publication for the newspaper industry ran this announcement when Patrick and Janet established International Eco Features Syndicate (IEFS) in 1983. Over the next three years, IEFS had over a hundred articles published in newspapers and magazines throughout North America.

Santa Monica Free Weekly
IEFS worked on many different issues. In this case, in an article published 8/11/83, Patrick discusses the State Assembly’s debate on “pound seizure,” i.e. use of stray companion animals in animal research. Eventually, pound seizure was banned.

pound seizure op ed santa monica free weekly

Los Angeles Times
Patrick’s op-ed on pollution in Santa Monica Bay appeared on Sunday, May 12, 1985. It resulted in a standing-room-only crowd in the hearing the next day on the City of Los Angeles’ request for a 301h waiver to the Clean Water Act. The City was requesting a permit to continue dumping partially treated sewage in the bay. It took some time, but within a few years, the voters had approved a bond issue to build a new sewage treatment plant and water quality in the bay began to improve.

L.A. Weekly
Patrick got a couple of great pieces of publicity, in and around publication of articles on issues. One was this L.A. Weekly article published in April 1988. Another was a Thanksgiving 1988 photo and brief article in the L.A. Times.

West Hollywood Post
The neighborhood newspaper for West Hollywood published a story of Patrick’s Emmy win on 5/26/88.

L.A. Times Letter to the Editor – Dec. 1991
Patrick tried to help improve the coastal water quality in Orange County in the same way he had in Los Angeles. That campaign was not as immediately successful.

L.A. Times Letter to the Editor – Dec. 1991
This letter shows how far ahead of the crowd Patrick in his assessment of issues. Twenty-three years later, California is facing the same issues with regard to the drought, and it’s impact on agriculture.

Video

Patrick Wall died March 1, 2014, at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, CA, of complications related to cancer treatment. A memorial service is planned in Santa Monica on May 3, 2014. For details, please call or text Janet Bridgers, 805 487 2999

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