Michael McCloskey was born in Eugene, Oregon in 1934 of parents who were both teachers—his father a college professor and his mother an elementary school teacher. She was also a community leader.

At the age of 12, he organized fellow newspaper delivery boys in a strike against the newspaper’s owners and won it.

He then began to be active in the Boy Scouts, ascending to the highest rank. Scouting introduced him to mountain climbing, which led him to develop an interest in conservation.

He was admitted to Harvard and won a Detur Award, graduating four years later Magna cum Laude.  Having gone into ROTC, he then went on active duty in the Army as an artillery officer. One of his special duties was as a defense counsel, where he won all of his cases. When he was switched to prosecution, he won all of those cases too. After serving in the reserves, he emerged from the Army with the rank of Captain.

After serving his time, he went to law school at the University of Oregon, winning a J.D. degree there.  However, he wasn’t attracted to the practice of business law.  Instead, he decided to become an advocate for environmental goals, going to work for the national Sierra Club. 

In many different roles, he became a lobbyist for protection of the environment.  He started as a field organizer in the Northwest, then becoming its Conservation Director, and then Executive Director (1969-1987).  Following that, he became its Chairman (1987-2000). 

He was the Club’s CEO during the years in which the nation’s framework laws for the environment were enacted, with the Club often playing a significant role.

He also played a role in the development of environmental law: as a major client of the club’s lawyers.  In court, the Club’s lawyers developed skills that enabled them to win most of their cases. He served on the Club’s Legal Committee. 

In his fifties, he served as an adjunct faculty member of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Michigan. He taught master’s degree candidates about the lobbying process.

Following retirement at the age of 65, he served for another ten years on the board of the Club’s Foundation. He is now an Honorary Vice President of the Sierra Club.  And a staff award at the Club is named after him.

In the course of his career, McCloskey also served as the Chairman of the Natural Resources Council of America, of the Mineral Policy Center, and as President of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs. He also served as the co-chairman of the Environmental Management Task Force of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. During this time, he also served on two of the IUCN’s* commission’s: ones on Protected Areas and Environmental Law.              

His services have been recognized with a series of awards:  the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award, the Packard Award from the IUCN, the Global 500 Award from the UN Environmental Program, the Award of Honor of the Natural Resources Council of America, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Wild Foundation and one from the Public Land Law Conference at the U. of O. law school.

For thirty years, he was listed in Who’s Who in America; he also was listed in Backpacker magazine as “one of the ten top environmentalists in the United States.”

Upon retirement, he began writing books; now having written six of them. A number of them have won awards and recognition.  Living now in Portland, Oregon, he served for eight years as chairman of its Heritage Tree program.