Choosing the Public Interest - edited and compiled by Sam Simon

Choosing the Public Interest

Edited and compiled
by Sam Simon

In 1970, a group of young people chose to take their values to work at a new sort of profession. They formed the Public Interest Research Group, a nonpartisan, nonprofit voice for consumers, taxpayers, open and honest government, and the environment.

Working under the renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader, they helped prove it’s possible to make real and lasting improvements in the lives of millions of Americans—and make an honest, and modest, living doing it. Now they are sharing their stories to challenge young people today and tomorrow to make the pursuit of positive social change their life’s work too.

“Choosing The Public Interest is full of poignant stories from people who helped move the country in a better, more sensible and sustainable direction. Their standing invitation to future generations is a powerful one: Read on, join in, make a difference.”

— Hon. Donna F. Edwards, Member of Congress (2008-2017)

  • Tom Stanton, Ralph Nader, Claire Nader, Laura Nader, Karen Ferguson, Carl Nash

    Left to right: Tom Stanton, Ralph Nader, Claire Nader, Laura Nader, Karen Ferguson, Carl Nash.

    Carl Nash, renowned for his automobile safety advocacy alongside Ralph Nader, overlapped with this book’s authors at PIRG. Claire Nader, a writer and social scientist, and Laura Nader, an anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, are sisters to Ralph Nader.

  • Mark Silbergeld, William A. Dobrovir, Donald Ross, and Jim Welch

    Left to right: Mark Silbergeld, a lifelong consumer rights advocate who passed away in 2012; William A. Dobrovir, veteran public interest lawyer; Donald Ross; and Jim Welch, who helped organize several PIRG student chapters in addition to his work at PIRG.

  • Karen Ferguson and Sam Simon

    Karen Ferguson and Sam Simon.

  • Chris White at a gathering with former colleagues several years after their time together at PIRG.

  • Patricia R. Powers, author of Focused Energy, A Study of Public Interest Advocates, her PhD thesis about PIRG, speaking with Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen from 1982-2009, who worked with Ralph Nader beginning with his campaign to improve highway and auto safety in the 1960s.

  • From left to right: Clarence Ditlow, Joan Claybrook, Carl Nash, Ralph Nader, Laura Nader.

    Clarence Ditlow was one of the country’s leading auto safety advocates and was head of the Center for Auto Safety for forty years. He passed away in 2016.

  • From left to right: Karen Ferguson, Tom Stanton, Claire Nader, and Jim Welch at a gathering with Ralph Nader.

  • A reunion dinner of early PIRGers in 2008.

    A reunion dinner of early PIRGers in 2008.

    Back row, from left to right: Mark Silbergeld, Carl Nash, Chris White, Bob Vaughn, Sam Simon. Front row, from left to right: Tom Stanton, Joan Woodward, Karen Ferguson, Donald Ross, Joan Claybrook.