Malin Terry Jennings

Malin Jennings, public relations executive, former television journalist, and Arctic researcher and advocate for the peoples there impacted by global climate change, died at the age of 57 on November 28, 2013 after an long and courageous battle with advanced breast cancer.

Malin’s father was a Naval officer who was often called to duty on ships overseas. Her mother, raised on a farm in Vermont, preferred to live with her growing family in the tiny cabin in Old Hollow, near Sperryville, VA in Rappahannock County at the foot of the Blue Ridge, rather than in a Washington, DC apartment while her husband was at sea. Off and on over 20 years, with no running water, and minimal electricity, Malin’s mother raised five children at the home they came to call “The Cabin”. It was sold in the 1990s as Malin’s parents aged and, after much refurbishment, is known today as Whistling Pig Farm.

Although Malin’s 30-year career as a television journalist, international communications executive and lecturer took her all over the world, she always considered Rappahannock County her home. She remained especially close to the Day family, whose farm, Padua, was just across the Hollow Road from the Jennings’ cabin, and to Dave Marshall Dwyer, whose property abutted the Jennings’ land. Dave, who became a life-long friend, taught Malin and her mother the best places to find morel mushrooms each spring and was beloved as a master storyteller. As child, Malin also spent many hours on the Old Hollow farm formerly owned by Charlie Atkins and his sisters Ethel Tyner and Nellie Atkins. One of her fondest memories was eating fried squirrel at dinner with the Atkins – a meal even tastier because “Mr. Charlie,” as he was known, was a local game warden and squirrel was out of season.

Malin came to Washington, DC (and thus returned to the Rappahannock area) after working as a television journalist in Alaska. A six-part documentary series she produced in 1982 received the Public Service Award, the highest journalism honor bestowed in the state. It was in the 49th state that she developed what would become a life-long love for the Arctic.

Malin worked for the international public relations firm of Fleishman-Hillard for 13 years, specializing in communications for financial services firms. Her clients included investment banks, credit card companies, commercial banks, mutual fund companies, and mortgage institutions. During her tenure at Fleishman-Hillard, she won a Silver Anvil, the public relations industry’s highest honor, among many other awards. In addition, Malin taught communications part-time at Johns Hopkins University. Malin’s work at Johns Hopkins and Fleishman-Hillard was preceded by media relations work for the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for the mutual fund industry; as press secretary to the late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and as a national television news correspondent for the now defunct CONUS News Service, covering the White House, Congress, and national stories such as the Iran-Contra trial of Col. Oliver North for 125 local stations around the U.S.

In 2006, Malin created the Arctic ICCE Project: Inuit Climate Change Ethnographies. The project won her a Fellowship with the Conservation Science Institute. The Arctic ICCE Project documented the impact of climate change on the people, culture and environment on the earth’s two northernmost communities, Siorapaluk and Qaanaaq, Greenland. Malin became an active advocate for Greenlanders hit hard by Arctic warming, giving talks at the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund in Tokyo, and a number of universities. In 2009, as a prelude to the COP 15 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Malin addressed a ministry-level panel on the impact of climate change on the Arctic population. Even after doctors found that her previously diagnosed case of breast cancer had metastasized throughout her body, Malin continued to make the difficult annual trip to and from northwest Greenland, often traveling by dog sled along the sea ice to reach remote villages. Her Arctic ICCE Project was covered by media worldwide, including CNN and the BBC-TV.

Malin is survived by her husband Jeffrey Telgarsky; her step-daughter Vivian; two step-sons from a previous marriage, Derek (Jennifer) and Jamie Weitzel; two sisters, Sara Spittel (Rob) and Heidi Fowler (Jim) and a brother, Ethan (Amy), as well as nine nieces and nephews. One niece and one nephew are children of her late brother, Jonathan. She had three step-grandchildren.

Friends will gather to remember Malin at 11:00 a.m. on December 14 at Joseph Gawler’s Sons funeral home, 5130 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC with interment following at the Historic Congressional Cemetery at 1801 E Street SE, Washington, DC.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made on Malin’s behalf to Blue Ridge Hospice (http://www.blueridgehospice.org/donate).