Gateways to Nature

A Little Background on Alan French

From 1990 to 2012, Alan French volunteered approximately half time as Chairman and Executive Director of the Bay Circuit Alliance, Inc.. Since it's inception in 1990 the Alliance worked to complete the Bay Circuit Trail & Greenway. The Bay Circuit was first proposed in 1929, given state legislative status in 1956, funded as a project of the Mass. Dept. Environmental Management in 1984, and reorganized as a grassroots private/public partnership in 1990. The Alliance is a coalition of local, regional, and statewide organizations in a corridor of 50 communities surrounding Boston. For more details, refer to www.baycircuit.org. French retired from his leadership of the Alliance in 2012. The project is currently managed by the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Alan French was born in Boston, Mass. in 1932 and educated at Yale College and Harvard University. In 1967, after working in a number of manaement positions in the printing and publishing industry, he and an associate formed Moor & Mountain, Inc. , a retail, mail order, and distributor of  backcountrty outdoor equipment, with locations in Concord, Chelmsford, and Andover, Mass. . French, President and sole stockholder since 1975, retired from Moor & Mountain in 2011, and the business ceased operations.

Since moving to Andover, Mass. in 1963, Alan French has been involved in local community service, including five years as Selectman, trusteeship with a local land trust, and service on numerous appointed policy commissions and committees most recently as a member of Andover’s Conservation Commission. In addition to chairing the Bay Circuit Alliance he has served on the Advisory Committee for The Fund For The Environment, managed by the Boston Foundation.