![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Biography
EPA Administrator Douglas M. Costle
Douglas M. Costle (born July 27, 1939) served as the third Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between 1977 and 1981. He spent his early years in Washington, D.C. During his teens in Seattle, Washington, he gained an appreciation for the pristine air and water then taken for granted in the magnificent Pacific Northwest. He attended Harvard University (BA in history, 1960) and law school at the University of Chicago (JD, 1963). In 1965 he married Elizabeth (Betsy) Rowe. Punctuated by stints in the private sector in law offices and urban planning firms, his public service career included positions in the Departments of Justice and Interior, on the Ash Council, as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and at the Congressional Budget Office. He subsequently served as Dean of the Vermont Law School. He founded and chairs the Institute for Sustainable Communities, which focuses on building public and private environmental protection infrastructure in the eastern European countries of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Costle resides in Woodstock, Vermont.