Guadalupe Mountains An Administrative History

SUPERINTENDENTS

Richard B. Smith, Superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, 1986-1987. (NPS Photo)

Richard B. Smith

Richard "Rick" Smith assumed the superintendency of Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns in March 1986. His career with the Park Service began in 1959, as a Seasonal Ranger at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. His first permanent assignment as a Ranger came in 1971, in Yosemite National Park, California. Smith remained there until 1976, when he transferred to the Albright Training Center at Grand Canyon, as a Training Specialist. From 1978 to 1980 he was a Legislative Affairs Specialist in the Park Service's Washington, D.C., office. Smith returned to the parks in 1980 when he became the Assistant Superintendent of Everglades National Park, Florida. He remained there through 1983. In 1984 he became Associate Director for Park Operations for the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Smith accepted the superintendency of Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns knowing that he would make the necessary preparations to separate the management of the two parks. In addition to that task, Smith worked with Congressman Ron Coleman to obtain funding for the park's visitor center and operational headquarters. He also revived the proposed border expansion for Guadalupe Mountains that had been tabled in 1981. He obtained Regional backing for the plan and gained the support of Congressman Coleman for the proposal. Smith tried to resolve the situation with Mary Hinson but yielded to the wishes of the Secretary of the Interior, who permitted her to continue to occupy the Glover tract until 1992. By 1986, however, local support for Hinson's position was weakening and Smith was not the focus of as much negative publicity as Dunmire had been four years earlier.

In October 1987, management of Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains was separated and Smith turned the superintendency of Guadalupe Mountains over to Karen P. Wade.