Randorf, one of the first staff members of New York’s Adirondack Park Agency, began his work as a naturalist in 1972, the same year the agency was created by the state Legislature, and was also the first staff member and first executive director of the Adirondack Council. The Council released a lengthy obituary for him Wednesday.

He successfully lobbied for ending coal-fired power plant practices that caused acid rain, for creating the Environmental Protection Fund and for acquiring more land into the Adirondack Park.

One of Randorf’s signature battles for the Council was to stop the widespread practice of spraying neuro-toxic pesticides on public and private lands to kill black flies. He argued that the practice was ineffective, damaging bee, bird, fish and other non-target species populations, and not essential since Adirondack black flies carry no known human disease. The practice ended in Adirondack towns in 1992.

Randorf informed local officials that toxins that kill black flies can kill people, too, and blamed his exposure to pesticides as a young man in Western New York for his eventual battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Adirondack conservationists, from left, Clarence Petty, Gary Randorf and Greenleaf Chase relax in the woods. (Photo provided by the Adirondack Council)

Randorf’s award-winning black-and-white and color film photography toured around in 1992 in a exhibit sponsored by Kodak, a company from his hometown of Rochester.

“Gary was very much a part of my life and my education when I took on the job with the Nature Conservancy,” said Timothy Barnett of Saratoga Springs, founding executive director of The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack chapter.

Adirondack Council Communications Director John Sheehan recalled Randorf’s calming presence when public protests of certain policies got heated.

“The wild rivers of the Park are weeping for the loss of this pioneer and servant of Wilderness,” wrote Peter Paine of Willsboro, author of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. “Go gently into the dark night old friend, and may flocks of angels wing thee to thy rest.”