The nudist community lost one of its great friends and mentors in Turner Van Cortlandt Stokes last weekend. Turner passed away on Saturday at age 90 from prostate cancer. Turner Stokes was the president of the ASA (the forerunner of AANR) from 1986 to 1988. Turner was an activist who in the early 1980s formed the National Capital Naturists with Lee Baxandall to create and nurture a nude beach on Assateague Island. When local officials sought to ban nudity on the beach, they organized a legal battle to oppose the ban. See https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/878/128/167307/ The battle for a nude beach on Assateague Island continued in various ways until it was given up as a lost cause a few years ago.
An archived interview with Turner Stokes gives insight into the person that he was.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1984/08/19/the-outlook-interview-turner-v-stokes-politically-active-nudist/49db6968-ed21-4ff4-9733-1cc97239be4a/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2cfe3a1ab108
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1984/08/19/the-outlook-interview-turner-v-stokes-politically-active-nudist/49db6968-ed21-4ff4-9733-1cc97239be4a/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2cfe3a1ab108
To read a few of his obituaries, please see
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/turner-v-stokes-champion-of-the-unclothed-dies-at-90/2018/06/25/92214dd4-788b-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ccf505477c5e
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/turner-v-stokes-leader-nudist-movement-has-died-90-180969475/
- https://www.npr.org/2018/06/26/623640838/wear-nothing-but-a-smile-prominent-nude-activist-turner-v-stokes-dies-at-90
