Women Who Shaped KinnelonLucy Meyer

A mind they tried to keep out

By local account Lucy Meyer was, as a young woman, waved into a math class meant for boys — and outpaced it. She trained as an engineer and a mathematical physicist and, the conservation community remembers, became Sperry Gyroscope's first female engineer, at a time when the profession rarely opened its doors to women.

The town that 'had no history'

When Kinnelon approached its bicentennial, Lucy Meyer was reportedly told the borough couldn't take part because it had no history. She disagreed — and answered with a book. “Kinnelon: A History,” published in 1976 by the Kinnelon Bicentennial Committee, became the town's standard account of itself and is still cited as a primary local source today. She served on the Kinnelon Environmental Commission and developed the borough's natural resource inventory, the working record of what the town actually holds.

Saving Pyramid Mountain

Her largest fight was for the land itself. When development threatened Pyramid Mountain — the ridge famous for the glacial balancing stone called Tripod Rock — Lucy Meyer led the Committee to Save Pyramid Mountain. The campaign reached all the way to Washington: in July 1988 she received a “Take Pride in America Award” from President Reagan on the White House lawn. The effort created the Pyramid Mountain Natural Historical Area — more than 1,500 acres spanning Kinnelon, Montville, and Boonton — where a vantage now called “Lucy's Overlook” carries her name.

The tree on the town seal

Among the things she fought to keep was a single butternut tree — believed to be the largest of its kind in the state. By local account that tree became part of the Kinnelon town seal, so that a thing she saved is carried on the town's own emblem.

What she left

Lucy Meyer died in December 2019 at the age of 89. She left behind the book that taught the town its own story, the inventory that records its land, a 1,500-acre natural area saved from the bulldozer, and an overlook and a tree-on-a-seal that quietly keep her name in view.

The timeline

1. 1976

   Publishes “Kinnelon: A History” for the Kinnelon Bicentennial Committee.

2. 1980s

   Leads the Committee to Save Pyramid Mountain against development.

3. July 1988

   Receives a “Take Pride in America Award” from President Reagan on the White House lawn.

4. 1987

   Pyramid Mountain Natural Historical Area is established — 1,500+ acres across Kinnelon, Montville, and Boonton.

5. December 2019

   Dies at age 89.