Springer said she met Sugerman in 1974, when the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging the Army Corps’ environmental impact study for the dam project. Two endangered species, the Indiana grey bat and the Higgins eye pearlymussel, would have had their habitats destroyed if the river were flooded, and the environmental impact study ignored the issue, Springer said. The lawsuit failed, but the fight for the river didn’t end.

“Jerry was the quintessential optimist throughout,” Springer said. “It was his belief that it could be done that prevailed and led the fight, because there were so many naysayers.”

Sugerman worked with other activists to talk with lawmakers, convincing U.S. senators John Danforth, Tom Eagleton and Kit Bond to take a float trip down the Meramec and witness its charm, said former state Sen. Wayne Goode.

“I think Jerry was more responsible than anyone else for stopping the Meramec dam,” Goode said. ”He was one of those guys that always wanted to do the right thing.”