The University of Minnesota has enjoyed a long and rich history of ecological research utilizing the historical record to understand ecological phenomena. Contemporaries at UM and leaders of ecological thought during their careers, Drs. Margaret Davis, Herb Wright and Eville Gorham were each characterized by treading the interface between physical and ecological sciences, using historical studies to better understand ecological drivers of ecosystem structure and function. Toward the end of their careers, as sustainability emerged as a research field, there is evidence that each of these researchers was interested in this topic. Certainly their students have carried forward this scientific legacy with an eye toward using the past as a guide for shaping the future. This symposium will feature two speakers on behalf of each honoree. The speakers represent a distribution of former students of the honorees (Clark,Munger); grand-students of the honorees (McLachlan, Hu) and prominent researchers working in closely related fields that would like to provide a perspective on the honorees contribution to science (Jackson, Schimel). Speakers will be asked to frame the work of the honoree in a prospective framework, considering the contributions of the honorees and where this particular field, to which the honoree contributed, has moved towards understanding ecological sustainability. In each case, one speaker will spend relatively more time connecting past work of the honoree to current research in the field, and the other will focus on looking forward to characterize how the field has learned from these eminent ecologists and how current directions build on past work to guide sustainable pathways to the future.