Dame Anita Roddick (1942-2007)

The next couple of hours were very intense for me as I processed grief, sadness and anger at the loss of this incredible and indomitable spirit, this woman who lived “out loud” more than any other human being I know. Eventually, I felt Anita’s powerful presence tugging at my heart, challenging me not to wander too close to self-pity. I could not help but smile as tears of joy for her liberation mixed with tears of sorrow for her departure from this plane.

While Anita and I had been closer than mere colleagues in the 1990s, we hadn’t been in contact much for the past few years. In 2000, she authored the foreword to my last book and we almost became partners in a publishing venture in 2003. I was her houseguest when she owned a home in Scotland and enjoyed a professional and personal relationship with her which I shall always treasure.

Reading the wire service stories about her passing I learned more about the cause of her death, how she had contracted a blood-borne, viral disease through a blood transfusion in childbirth over thirty years ago. Unaware of her recent public announcement of her disease, I assumed she was still shaking up convention all around the world as she had been doing for decades.

Parmy Olson, London Bureau Chief for Forbes.com, wrote, “Roddick viewed her illness with characteristic aplomb: ‘Many people have spoken of my ‘bravery’ in going public with my illness – pish! It shouldn’t take bravery to live life openly despite illness, although our developed world, with its deep fear and denial of mortality, often demands it.’ Aside from the frank expression of her beliefs, Roddick will be remembered for having helped reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable: commerce and social activism.. Though the latter seemed to clearly be where her heart was, she still managed to cultivate a phenomenally successful business and become a millionaire, while reminding everyone that, ‘businesses have the power to do good.’” [for the entire article see http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2007/09/11/anita-roddick-obit-face-markets-cx_po_0911autofacescan01.html] 

I shall always cherish my week in Scotland with Anita and her husband Gordon, her mum, oldest daughter and grandchild, being silly, cooking together, playing billiards and hiking around Loch Muick and the Royal Hunting Lodge. Fourteen of us, half family and half friends from the U.S., had a wonderful time hanging out together in the Scottish heather, welcoming the local bagpipe marchers and enjoying the regional Highland Games.

As the responsible business movement started gaining traction in the late 1980s, I recall the beginning of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and USA Today featuring the story in May 1992 with pictures of two of the movement’s icons, Ben Cohen, of Ben & Jerry’s, and Anita. She was a fierce advocate of social justice and an inspiration to millions of women, both in the industrialized West and indigenous regions of the world where she loved to visit. She was equally at home with the Queen or Princess Diana, meeting with investment bankers or bathing naked in the hot tubs at Esalen. She was tear-gassed in Seattle at the WTO demonstrations, had her face painted by indigenous tribes all over the world, trekked through jungles, marched for social justice – all with a bombastic irreverence of anything haughty.   

In 2003, Queen Elizabeth bestowed on Anita the title of Dame of the British Empire. Prime Minister Gordon Brown called her a “true pioneer.” Paul Hawken called her a "force of nature." Indeed Anita left a rich legacy and tall shoulders for the rest of us to stand upon. 

Of one thing I’m certain: No one I have ever known has lived and worked with as much energy as Anita. I doubt things will be any different for her in the unfettered energies of the spiritual ethers. I am expecting an occasional kick in the pants or poke in the eye from her Spirit whenever I get a bit too full of myself. And I will say, “Thanks Anita!”

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