Submitted by Marline Miller

In the December issue of the Ethical Humanist newsletter Andrea Perrault’s article was titled “ESB Priorities & Ethics in Action”.

One of our members, Pat Granahan, is an example of someone who put her ethics into action.

Pat was introduced to the Society by Ed Roseland.  He contacted Pat in 2001 asking her to arrange for a speaker.  Pat has been a member ever since.

The following account comes from a listing compiled by the Hingham Public Library and the Hingham Historical Society called “Legendary Locals”.  Pat was listed under “Reformers”.

“In the 1970s, Dr. Helen Caldecott of Australia was speaking out against nuclear energy and its dangers, and specifically the harmful effects to humans.  Her words inspired Pat, who quickly joined the anti-nuke campaign.  She founded REACH, the Responsible Energy Alternatives Coalition of Hingham in 1979 with the goal of swaying the Hingham Light Board away from their support of the Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire.  Through REACH, Pat was able to bring noted experts on the subject of alternative energy to speak in Hingham and encourage all residents to become fully informed regarding this issue.

In 1963 Granahan was the first woman elected to the Municipal Light Board in Hingham, on which she would serve until 1986.  During her tenure she devoted herself to promoting wind power and other alternative energy sources not only to the rest of the Board, but also to her constituents.  These efforts included successfully petitioning the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy Resources to conduct a study focusing on improving efficiency and on using alternative energy at the Light Plant.  Although never utilized, the study did find that Turkey Hill might be a suitable place for wind turbines.

Pat continued her fight for alternative energy use even after leaving the Municipal Light Board.  In 1988 she led a campaign to ban nuclear power in Massachusetts and to close the two plants then in use.  She helped gather the 76,000 signatures that allowed it to be included on the November, 1988 ballot and was also involved in a campaign to stop nuclear waste.  She was arrested for trespassing in 1989 while protesting the reopening of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant of Plymouth, MA.  It was the first of several times that Pat would practice civil disobedience.”

In 2009 Pat’s son, Leon M. Granahan, was killed when he was swept through a culvert at World’s End Reservation in Hingham.  After that tragedy Pat and the World’s End Neighborhood Association worked to help assure safety at the culvert site.