Anella Wieber Dexter

Born and schooled in Wisconsin, Anella Dexter was a research chemist who came to Texas in the mid-1950s with her husband, Laurence Dexter, a geophysical consultant.

In the late 1950s, the couple helped organize Texas Beaches Unlimited, later restructured as the Texas Conservation Council, to lobby for free public access and use of the state’s Gulf shores. Their work culminated in State Rep. Bob Eckhardt’s passage of the Open Beaches Act in 1959. The Council went on to successfully help in the establishment of the Padre Island National Seashore in 1962 and the creation of the Big Thicket National Preserve in 1974.

Ms Dexter was active personally in a number of regards, giving conservation presentations to garden clubs and other civic groups, in promoting the Little Thicket Nature Sanctuary (a preserve created and managed by the Outdoor Nature Club), and in drafting a Texas wildflower book illustrated with her photographs.