Ask Margaret “Maggy” Reno Hurchalla to discuss her career, and “professional grandmother” is the first job title she mentions.

But don’t be misled by her humility and maternal inclinations. Hurchalla is something of a living legend in southern Florida—a colorful character in local politics, the first female commissioner to be elected in Martin County there, and a champion in the fight to preserve the Everglades.

During her 20 years as a county commissioner, Hurchalla has been credited with helping to keep the Martin County beaches public, creating a program to buy lands for conservation, and writing the county’s comprehensive growth-management plan.

She was also a founding member and leader on the Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida for five years until 1999. That group’s ongoing mission is to help developers, business owners, and environmentalists cooperatively plan the area’s growth while preserving its fragile ecosystems.

Although Hurchalla retired from elected politics in 1994, she is still considered an authority on the resuscitation of South Florida’s watershed, which has been nearly destroyed in recent years by excessive development, farm runoff, and fresh water flushed from Lake Okeechobee to prevent flooding.

“If it’s wet, and it’s in Florida, then I love it—and I’m concerned,” Hurchalla said. “Too many beautiful places are being destroyed, and we’re running out of time.”

Environmental experts contend Hurchalla’s knowledge of complicated watershed issues and her ability to work with and understand both sides of the preservation vs. development debate is extraordinary. She’s frequently asked to lead panel discussions or state her opinion on different issues—especially those involving the Indian River estuary, where she lives.

“She’s remarkable, very persuasive. She’s got a charm about her, an easy, approachable warmth. But underneath there’s strength and confidence—classic leadership qualities,” said Shannon Estenoz, national co-chair of the Everglades Coalition and director of the World Wildlife Fund Everglades Program.

“She has an extraordinary knowledge. She’s smart, energetic, and she’s an expert in government and environmental issues. She also knows all the players. She knows which personal chemistries will work and which will not. She really does see the big picture,” agreed Col. Greg May, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville, Fla., who recently invited her to participate in the 27th Annual Water Management Conference on the Indian River Lagoon.

But for all the noteworthy stories about her professional accomplishments, there are just as many anecdotes about Hurchalla’s unconventional personality and upbringing.

For starters, there was the night she took a group of politicians and reporters skinny-dipping after voters approved a bond issue to save Martin County’s ocean beaches. Or the time she got stuck in the mud with her kayak and had to spend the night in a Florida swamp. Or how her mother taught her to wrestle alligators, and how she’s passed the skill on to her own 11-year-old granddaughter.

Hurchalla, her two brothers and sister—former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno—grew up “on 20 acres of cow pasture” along the edge of the Everglades. The Reno children helped their mother, Jane Wood Reno, construct their childhood home, and Hurchalla’s sister still lives in the house today. Their parents were career journalists who worked for competing daily newspapers in Miami, and the Reno children grew up with pet ponies, peacocks, the occasional alligator in the house, and lots of freedom. It was there that Hurchalla developed her lifelong passion for the outdoors.

“Mother disliked convention and didn’t care about things like us wearing shoes. But she was strict about us not being mean to people who were smaller than you.

“I didn’t realize at the time that everyone didn’t have the childhood that I had,” said Hurchalla, who taught herself to scuba dive at the age of 12 and was giving professional lessons at 13.

Hurchalla’s brother, Robert Reno, a columnist for Newsday, recalled that even as a child, his younger sister was a “veteran explorer” of the swamps near their home. “I don’t think there’s any part of South Florida she hasn’t been through.

“I wouldn’t have predicted that she was going to be a politician. I think she got dragged into it because Martin County was developing into this suburban sprawl horror, and it was going to be ruined if someone didn’t do something,” Robert Reno said. “I think both my sisters got into [politics] because they care.”

But Hurchalla’s career choice is not surprising to Janet Reno, who calls her younger sister her “best friend.”

“Both my parents were interested in politics, and they taught us to be aware and understand the issues.

“Maggy is extremely intelligent and has a tremendous capacity to learn. Once having learned [an issue], she’s very good at talking about it. She also cares a great deal about people,” Janet Reno said.

Hurchalla met her husband, Jim ’60, during her freshman year when they shared a ride to Florida from Swarthmore before Christmas break. On one of their first dates, Jim stood guard while Hurchalla and a friend climbed up the College’s water tower to paint “Cheer Up” on the side. They married in the fall semester of her junior year, and their first child, Jimmy, was born the following summer. (Hurchalla has fond memories of taking the baby to a few honors seminars during her senior year.) She was pregnant with her second child when she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in psychology and minoring in biology and philosophy.

The pair eventually purchased land along the bank of the Indian River estuary, where they raised their four children: James, Robert, Jane ’86, and George ’88.

Hurchalla was elected Martin County’s first female commissioner in 1974. During her 20-year term, she became one of the most well known political figures in South Florida. The outspoken, 6-foot-1-inch Hurchalla consistently went head-to-head with those who wanted to indiscriminately develop Martin County and was sometimes criticized for inhibiting the county’s growth. But many also credit her with saving valuable wetlands.

“Maggy’s impact is enormous here. You drive through Martin County, and it doesn’t look like the rest of South Florida. There are more Everglades there because [the county] has a progressive wetlands ordinance.

“Maggy realized early that a restored Everglades was instrumental to the economic prosperity of South Florida and that the environment and the economy are inextricably linked,” Estenoz said.

These days, Hurchalla advocates “soft solutions” to restoring South Florida’s wetlands. One possible strategy, she maintains, is purchasing land from willing farmers and restoring those areas as wetlands, instead of allowing the property to end up as subdivisions.

“There are people who you want to call for feedback, and Maggy is definitely one of them.

I find her much more interested in achieving [ecological] restoration than pushing a personal agenda or satisfying her own ego. She has [the highest level] of leadership traits and at the same time has a lot of personal humility,” May said.

When Hurchalla was first elected county commissioner, the position was part time and perfect while she was raising her children. But that changed by the time she retired 20 years later.

“When I started, there were 30,000 people in the county. By the time I left, there were 100,000, and I was working 80 hours a week.

“No, I don’t miss it. It’s sad when you see things going to hell, and you can’t do anything about it,” she said, maintaining that the county’s current board has not put environmental issues on the forefront of their agenda. “But it’s also a big relief. As a friend noted, I can drive by a pothole now and say, ‘hey, I don’t have to do anything about that.’”

In retirement, Hurchalla has enjoyed a wide variety of activities—international adventures including scuba diving on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, meeting natives in New Guinea, and hiking Hawaiian swamps and volcanoes. She also loves canoeing and kayaking the Indian River Lagoon and is trying to pass her love of nature and wildlife on to her two grandchildren, Kimberly, 11, and James, 9.

She also occasionally hit the campaign trail with her sister when Janet Reno ran unsuccessfully for governor earlier this year.

Although she’s usually willing to attend an occasional meeting on the environment or act as a sounding board to environmentalists and politicians, Hurchalla is trying to spend more quality time with her family. She is also often found in her kayak, exploring the beloved waters near her home.

“A friend said, ‘you’re trying to save [the estuary] because you love it. If you love it, then go outside, and enjoy it.’ That’s what I’m trying to do more of these days,” she said.