PROVIDENCE – Save The Bay today announced the impending departure of Curt Spalding, the longtime executive director credited with building a small grass-roots group into prominent environmental organization.

Today, the group has an operating budget of $3.7 million per year and a staff of 36 paid workers, plus more than 1,200 active volunteers.

“In the 20 years I’ve served Save The Bay’s membership and the community, peoples’ understanding of the value of Narragansett Bay has been transformed,” Spalding said in a statement this afternoon.

“Improving and sustaining the health of the Bay is now widely recognized as a cornerstone for growing the prosperity of the state and region. I leave knowing that Save The Bay’s work was the driver of this transformation.”

“It is very hard to leave a job you love,” he added. “But it is time to seek new challenges and pass on the responsibility of expanding and deepening the community’s commitment to sustaining a clean and healthy Bay for generations to come.”

Since joining Save The Bay in 1987, Spalding has been a tireless advocate for sewage-treatment and Open Space bonds and other public investments in a cleaner Narragansett Bay. Under his leadership, Save The Bay became a nationally recognized leader in the restoration of fragile estuaries, the implementation of anti-pollution regulations and the promotion of “smart-growth” planning efforts.

During his tenure, he has overseen educational programs reaching out to more than 20,000 students and their families. And he has overseen the fundraising, design and construction of the nonprofit’s four-year-old home, the Bay Center at Fields Point, built atop a former brownfield. (READ MORE)

“I know that the staff, board and everyone involved with Save The Bay will miss Curt and wish him great success in his next endeavor,” said Alden M. Anderson Jr., president of the Save The Bay board of directors.

“We will have some very large shoes to fill with the departure of Curt Spalding,” he added. “As our executive director, he has been a passionate, visionary protector of Narragansett Bay …. We will miss his energy, consummate skills and total commitment to our cause.”

Anderson said the board of directors “has formed a top-notch search committee [that] will begin a national search immediately to identify a successor.”

Save The Bay, founded in 1970, is a nonprofit education and advocacy organization, dedicated to improving Rhode Island’s economy, environment and quality of life by protecting, restoring and exploring the Narragansett Bay and its watershed. To learn more, visit www.SaveBay.org.