Which university was Denis Hayes attending when he organized the first Earth Day?

Denis Hayes was attending Harvard University when he organized the first Earth Day.

In late 1969, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson recruited Hayes to coordinate a nationwide environmental teach-in. Hayes was then a Harvard graduate student; he left the university after accepting the organizing job and built a national campaign around April 22, 1970.

The event grew far beyond its original campus-focused concept. Hayes and his staff connected students, labor unions, civic groups, schools, and local activists, helping produce rallies and teach-ins across the United States. An estimated 20 million Americans participated, making the first Earth Day a landmark in the modern environmental movement.

A common mix-up is Hayes’s later connection with Stanford. He earned his undergraduate degree there and later attended Stanford Law School, but Harvard was the university he was attending when Nelson recruited him. Hayes later helped internationalize Earth Day in 1990 and became associated with the Earth Day Network.