Nonette Hanko

A native of San Mateo and Burlingame, Nonette Hanko has been a Palo Alto resident since 1951. In 1970, Nonette, along with a handful of key open space preservation proponents, spearheaded a two county initiative to form the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Hanko was born and raised on the Peninsula where a love of music and time spent in nature shaped her childhood. An aspiring concert pianist, she studied music at San Francisco State University before marrying and moving to Palo Alto in 1950.

In the late 1960s, a recall of Palo Alto City Council members and Stanford University’s proposed development of Coyote Hill began drawing Hanko out to public meetings.

“I’d lost the wild places I had as a little girl. In Palo Alto there were NO TRESPASSING signs all the way to Skyline. Coyote Hill was one of the few places I could go and hear nothing but bird song,” Hanko said in recalling why she’d wanted to create Midpen.

Palo Alto Times reporter Jay Thorwaldson published an editorial on February 16, 1970, proposing that if conservationists really wanted to preserve land on the rapidly developing Peninsula, they should follow the lead of the East Bay community in creating an agency capable of acquiring land in the public trust. After reading it, Hanko cried herself to sleep and awoke the next morning inspired to take action.

She planned a meeting at her house, inviting everyone she knew who might be able to help create a local open space district. Over homemade blueberry coffeecake, Hanko galvanized a movement that has shaped our region.

Nonette served on the elected Board of Directors, representing Ward 5 since Midpen was founded in 1972 until her retirement in December 2018. She served six terms as President and is the only Board member to have served two of these terms consecutively. In addition to her service as a Board member, Nonette was also appointed to the 2020 Task Force of Santa Clara County, which recommended that a new south county open space agency be formed to complete a ring of agencies circling the San Francisco Bay.

Over the last decade, Nonette has been recognized for her preservation efforts and has been featured as one of the living visionaries of Bay Area open space in photographer/author Galen Rowell’s book Bay Area Wild, received the World of Out of Doors Award from the Girl Scouts in Santa Clara County, and received the prestigious “Creators of the Legacy” honor as part of the Palo Alto Centennial.

Nonette Hanko is an environmental pioneer. We recognize the trails she blazed that shape our region. The undeveloped open spaces surrounding our communities, from the baylands to the foothills and forested mountains, exist in large part because of the vision and vigilance of Nonette and her fellow conservationists.