Guadalupe Mountains An Administrative History

SUPERINTENDENTS

William W. Dunmire, Superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, 1981-1985 (NPS Photo)

William W. Dunmire

Bill Dunmire arrived at the Carlsbad headquarters in January 1981 to fill the position left vacant by the departure of Donald Dayton. His educational and professional backgrounds prepared him well to superintend a wilderness park. He received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California at Berkeley in the area of wildlife management and ecology. His career with the Park Service began in 1957 when he became an Intake Trainee at Yosemite National Park, California. Subsequently, he held positions as Park Naturalist at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; Chief Park Naturalist at Badlands National Mounument, South Dakota; Chief of Interpretation and Resource Management at Isle Royale National Park, Michigan; and Chief Park Naturalist at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. From 1972 to 1973 Dunmire was Interpretive Coordinator at the Denver Service Center. He then transferred to the Park Service's office in Washington, D.C., as Chief of the Division of Interpretation. In 1977 he became Superintendent of Coulee Dam National Recreation Area, Washington.

Dunmire was Superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns from January 1981 to October 1985. During that time he coordinated most of the construction that took place at the park, guided revisions and refinements of the park's Resource Management Plans, and was embroiled in two public controversies: the mountains lion problem and the effort to gain possession of the Glover tract after the death of Bertha Glover in 1982. While Dunmire's background in wildlife management provided a sound basis from which to make decisions about the mountain lion issue, nothing had prepared him for the emotional fireworks and national attention that accompanied the Park Service's attempt to dislocate Mary Hinson from the Glover property.

Dunmire retired in October 1985, after 30 years of employment with the federal government.