Inducted into the Michigan Walk of Fame on May 25, 2006, Emma Genevieve Gillette was a dynamic woman who pioneered the conservation movement.  Known as the “Mother” of Michigan’s State Park system, Genevieve Gillette is remembered as one of the state’s most effective conservation lobbyists.

In 1920 she was the only woman in the first landscape architecture class to graduate from Michigan Agricultural College – now Michigan State University. As an ally of parks chief P.J. Hoffmaster, and later as founder and president of the Michigan Parks Association, she raised public awareness and funding for more than 200,000 acres of Michigan’s state and national parks.  In 2002, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm noted, “It was the hand of people like Genevieve Gillette who spent long hours writing letters to state leaders to get them to build and maintain a park system.”  She traveled Michigan seeking potential parkland and refined her lobbying skills during the 50 years spent conservationist advocate.

Her passionate, persistent advocacy also helped create Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. In the mid-1960s Gillette served on President Lyndon Johnson’s Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty.

Today, the E. Genevieve Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center, located in P.J. Hoffmaster State Park, honors her years of community service.