Austin Environmentalist Mary Gay Maxwell Remembered, Honored For Her Work

AUSTIN, TX -- City leaders honored the memory of local environmentalist Mary Gay Maxwell who died in a car wreck on Thursday.

Austin City Council members opened their regular meeting this week with a moment of silence for Maxwell, who was killed was killed in a head-on collision in Smithville Wednesday, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Maxwell was 78.

The longtime chair of the Austin Environmental Board was remembered fondly by council members, including Leslie Pool who categorized her death as "an immeasurable loss to our community."

Maxwell championed an array of environmental causes, and was known for her work centered on neighborhood preservation.

“Mary Gay was my friend, she was a teacher and a determined advocate,” Pool said. “She created a legacy of promoting stewardship and responsibility in protecting our city’s unique beauty.”

Maxwell joined the Environmental Board more than 15 years ago before serving as its chair for the last eight years, the Statesman reported.

A fifth-generation Texan, Maxwell moved to Austin in the 1950s to study at the University of Texas, where she earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees in psychology. She joined the Save Our Springs Alliance board in the late 1990s and focused much of her effort on curbing development along the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, the Statesman reports.

On a return trip from Houston where she had visited family members, Maxwell went into a skid while driving west on Texas 71 at about 3 p.m. this past Wednesday. Her car went over the median and struck on oncoming vehicle.

An autopsy was scheduled to determine if a health issue was attributable to her losing control of the car. The other driver, a woman in her 50s, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

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