Dick Beamish, ADK Explorer are 2026 Harold K. Hochschild Award recipients

BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE | The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), will be celebrating its annual Benefit Gala & Harold K. Hochschild Award ceremony on Saturday, July 25, from 5 to 9 p.m., under the stars at their museum in the heart of the Adirondacks. This yearly celebration and fundraiser highlights the organization's service to the Adirondack community, as well as honors the Harold K. Hochschild Award recipient. This award, given annually to a different recipient, is dedicated to the memory of the museum's founder, whose passion for the Adirondacks, its people, and environment inspired him to create the museum and establish the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). The 2026 award recipients are Dick Beamish and the Adirondack Explorer Magazine. For more than five decades, Dick Beamish has been one of the Adirondack Park's most persistent and passionate advocates. Born and raised in Albany, Beamish first fell in love with the region as a boy, spending summers at Camp Dudley on Lake Champlain. After graduating from Williams College and earning a master's degree in journalism from Columbia, he became the first communications director of the newly formed Adirondack Park Agency in 1972. In that role, he crisscrossed the state working to educate the public about the region and the urgent need for thoughtful planning and protection. His firsthand accounts of those pivotal early years are preserved in the ADKX archives as part of a major oral history collection recently donated by author Brad Edmondson. By the 1990s, Beamish recognized a void in how news and information about the Adirondacks were shared. Misconceptions about the Park were common—both inside and outside the Blue Line—and he believed a regional publication could help bridge divides and elevate informed dialogue. In 1998, after years of determination and fundraising, Beamish launched Adirondack Explorer, a nonprofit news magazine dedicated to covering the Park's natural and human communities. Its mission: "to inform and influence, to identify problems and solutions, to help shape public opinion and policy." "Dick Beamish's vision and unwavering commitment have strengthened understanding of the Adirondacks for generations, and Adirondack Explorer continues that vital work every day. Their dedication to thoughtful dialogue, environmental stewardship, and community storytelling reflects the very ideals Harold Hochschild championed. We are honored to recognize Dick and the Explorer with this year's award, and we look forward to celebrating their extraordinary impact at the 2026 Gala," said ADKX Trustee Nancy Keet. From its earliest issues, the Explorer has played an essential role in presenting balanced reporting on complex topics, celebrating outdoor recreation and natural history, and highlighting the challenges and opportunities facing Adirondack communities. Today it stands as one of the most trusted sources of independent journalism in the region. "We are grateful for Dick Beamish and Adirondack Explorer's decades of dedication to the Adirondack Park. Their commitment to thoughtful reporting and community engagement has made a lasting difference, and we're delighted to honor them at this year's Gala." said ADKX Executive Director David Kahn. To purchase tickets to this event or make a contribution in honor of Dick Beamish and the Adirondack Explorer Magazine, visit the ADKX website.

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Dick Beamish, ADK Explorer are 2026 Harold K. Hochschild Award recipients

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