To celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service, each month we
will reflect back on various aspects of the development of the National Park
Service and the National Park System. This month we will take a quick look at
the men and women who have held the title of Director of the National Park
Service (as well as two men who held the title of Superintendent of National
Parks). Books have been written by, and about, many of these individuals
a selection of those writings are listed following each Director. To learn more
details about their contributions to the National Park Service, you are
encouraged to read these additional
books.
Stephen
Tyng Mather and his staff in Washington, D.C., 1927 or 1928. From left
to right, Arno B. Cammerer, Arthur E. Demaray, Stephen T. Mather, George
A. Moskey and Horace M. Albright. (National Park Service photo, HPC-000045)
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Directors of the National Park Service
Prior to the establishment of the National Park Service on August 25, 1916 and
the subsequent creation of its first Director, the following two
individuals were selected by the Secretary of the Interior to manage national
parks/monuments as the Superintendent of National Parks. To avoid
confusion at that time, the title of those individuals who were entrusted in
managing individual parks was changed to Supervisors (national parks) and
Custodians (national monuments); during Director Mather's tenure, the title of
park Superintendent was resumed (though Custodian was retained for those
managing national monuments for another two decades).
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Superintendents |
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Mark Roy Daniels, 1913 - December 9, 1915 |
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Mark Daniels was selected to
become the first General Superintendent and Landscape Architect of
national parks. Born in Spring Arbor, Michigan, Daniels received a
landscape engineering degree at the University of California in 1905. In
late 1913, at the urging of Professor Adolph C. Miller, assistant to the
Secretary of the Interior (Franklin K. Lane) in charge of national
parks, Secretary Lane promoted Daniels to become the general
superintendent of parks, subsequently establishing his office in San
Francisco. In late 1915, Daniels resigned his position and returned to
his landscape architecture practice.
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Robert Bradford Marshall, December 10, 1915 - December 31, 1916 |
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Robert B.
(Bob) Marshall was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1867 and started
his career as a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey, rising to
the ranks of Chief Geographer in 1910. In 1915, at the urging of
Stephen T. Mather, then assistant to the Secretary of the Interior
Franklin K. Lane, Marshall was appointed to be the next (and last)
Superintendent of National Parks, a position he held until 1917 when
Director Mather became the first Director the newly established National
Park Service. Bringing with him into this position was his secretary,
Isabelle Story, as well as chief draftsman, Arthur Demaray, both of whom
went on to become key players in National Park Service history. Marshall
resumed the position of Chief Geographer in 1917 and went on to develop
the Marshall Plan of irrigation and water control for Central Valley in
California. He died in 1949.
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Directors |
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Stephen Tyng Mather, May 16, 1917 - January 8, 1929 |
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A San
Francisco native, Mather was a University of California graduate and a
reporter for Dana's New York Sun. He entered the borax business,
where he became a self-made millionaire and philanthropist. At 47, at
the very pinnacle of success, he was on the lookout for new worlds to
conquer. Stephen T. Mather came to Washington from Chicago in January
1915 as special assistant to Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane
for national park concerns. His vigorous efforts to build public and
political support for the parks helped persuade Congress to create the
National Park Service in 1916. Appointed the first NPS director in May
1917, he continued to promote park access, development, and use and
contributed generously to the parks from his personal fortune. During
his tenure the service's domain expanded eastward with the addition of
Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Mammoth Cave national parks.
Periodically disabled by manic-depression, Mather left office in January
1929 after suffering a stroke and died a year later.
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Horace Marden Albright, January 12, 1929 - August 9, 1933 |
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Also a
graduate of the University of California, Albright earned a law degree
and passed the bar in the State of California and the District of
Columbia. Horace M. Albright came to the Interior Department from
California in 1913 at the age of 23. After Mather's arrival Albright
assisted him in overseeing the department's national parks and monuments
and working for passage of the National Park Service legislation.
Appointed NPS assistant director in May 1917, he acted as director for
nearly two years while Mather was disabled by depression and launched
the bureau's operations. From 1919 to 1929 he superintended Yellowstone
National Park but continued to play a leading role in servicewide
affairs. As Mather's successor in January 1929, he engineered the
further expansion of an essentially western, natural park system to a
truly national park system encompassing historic sites and memorials. He
left to become vice president of U.S. Potash Co. in August 1933 after
obtaining the sixty-two Agriculture and War departments' national
monuments and military parks and the national capital parks, but he
retained close ties to the NPS until his death in 1987.
Suggested
reading: Horace M. Albright as told to Robert Cahn, The Birth of the
National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913-33 (Salt Lake City: Howe
Brothers, 1985;Creating
the National Park Service: The Missing Years (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1999); Donald C. Swain, Wilderness Defender: Horace
M. Albright and Conservation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1970); Horace M. Albright and Frank J. Taylor, "Oh Ranger!" A Book about the National Parks
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1929); J.W. Ernst,
Worthwhile Places: Correspondence of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Horace Albright (Bronx, NY:
Fordham University Press, 1999).
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Arno Berthold Cammerer, August 10, 1933 - August 9, 1940 |
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Arno B.
Cammerer was born in Arapaho, Nebraska, went to Washington, D.C., in
1904 as a civil service bookkeeper and earned two degrees at Georgetown
Law School. Mather spotted Cammerer's competence as executive secretary
of the Fine Arts Commission and replaced Albright as assistant director
in 1919, serving as Mather's right-hand man in Washington and acting for
him in his frequent absences over the next decade. He advanced to the
new rank of associate director in 1928, then succeeded Albright as
director in August 1933. Under his leadership the NPS became involved
with recreational area planning and management, supervised the Civilian
Conservation Corps in both national and state parks, and began to survey
and record historic sites and buildings outside the parks. Strained
relations with Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes impaired his
effectiveness and health, and he stepped down after a heart attack in
1940 to become the service's eastern regional director. He died in that
position the following year at the age of 57.
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Newton Bishop Drury, August 20, 1940 - March 31, 1951 |
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Newton B.
Drury declined appointment as director in 1933 but accepted the job in
1940 at the age of 51. Drury had been a college classmate of Albright's
and had served overseas in World War I. Born in Berkeley, he was the
third Californian to lead NPS. He was the first director without prior
national park responsibilities but came with strong conservationist
credentials, having served for 20 years as executive secretary of the
Save-the-Redwoods League in California. His term as Director was
perhaps the most critical NPS has seen. During World War II he
successfully resisted most demands for consumptive uses of park
resources, turning back incessant demands to use the parks for mining,
grazing, logging and farming under the guise of wartime or post-war
necessity. Less eager than his predecessors to expand the park system,
he opposed NPS involvement with areas he judged not to meet national
park standards. Differences with Secretary of the Interior Oscar L.
Chapman over Chapman's support for dams in Dinosaur National Monument
contributed to Drury's resignation on April 1st, 1951. He was board
chairman of the Save-the-Redwoods League when he died in 1978 at
88.
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Arthur Edward Demaray, April 1, 1951 - December 8, 1951 |
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A
Washington, D.C., native, Arthur E. Demaray entered the Government as a
messenger at 16, and worked his way through night school. Formerly a
draftsman with the U.S. Geological Survey, Demaray moved to the NPS when
its headquarters was first staffed in 1917. His brief tenure (only 8
months) as NPS director in 1951 before his planned retirement was a
reward for his long and distinguished service (34 years with NPS), the
last 18 (starting in 1933) as Associate Director. In the second spot
during the tumultuous New Deal and the difficult wartime years (when he
remained in Washington while the headquarters office relocated to
Chicago), he proved an extremely effective administrator. He testified
effectively at Congressional and budget hearings and his writings
stimulated park interest. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was to
maintain good working relations with Harold Ickes during the irascible
secretary's 13-year regime (1933-46). Demaray retired Dec. 8, 1951 to
live in Tucson, Ariz. He died in 1958 at 71.
Suggested reading:
Inventory of the Arthur E. Demaray papers, 1830-1979
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Conrad Louis Wirth, December 9, 1951 - January 7, 1964 |
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Conrad L.
Wirth grew up in a park environmenthis father was park
superintendent for the city of Hartford, Conn., and later the city of
Minneapolis. Wirth took a degree in landscape architecture from what is
now the University of Massachusetts. He first came to the Washington,
D.C., area to work for the National Capital Park and Planning
Commission. Albright had him transferred into NPS in 1931, where he was
put in charge of the Branch of Lands. With the coming of the New Deal he
supervised the service's Civilian Conservation Corps program in the
state parks. His administrative ability marked him to succeed Demaray,
whom he served as associate director before advancing to the top job in
December 1951 at the age of 52. Wirth's crowning achievement, he won
President Eisenhower's approval for Mission 66, a 10-year,
billion-dollar program to upgrade park facilities and services by the
50th anniversary of the NPS in 1966. After the 1961 change of
administrations Wirth fell out of favor with Secretary of the Interior
Stewart L. Udall and departed in early 1964. Wirth became a member of
the National Geographic Society's Board of Trustees and remained active
in conservation and Park Service alumni affairs. He died in
1993.
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George Benjamin Hartzog, Jr., January 9, 1964 - December 31, 1972 |
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Remembered
for his cream-colored Stetson, endless supply of elongated cigars and
double-sized briefcase, Hartzog's irresistible energy and unorthodox
bureaucratic style were captured in a New Yorker profile by John
McPhee. George B. Hartzog, Jr., joined the NPS as an attorney in 1946,
and took a science degree at American University in 1953. He moved to
field assignments at Great Smoky Mountains and Rocky Mountains national
parks, then made his name advancing the Gateway Arch project as
superintendent of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial from 1959 to
1962, where he spearheaded the project for Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch.
After briefly leaving the service he returned as associate director in
1963 with the promise of succeeding Conrad Wirth in January 1964. A
dynamic, politically astute manager, Hartzog welcomed some 70 new areas
to the national park system during his nine-year tenure as director and
greatly enlarged the service's role in urban recreation, historic
preservation (following the passage of the Historic Preservation Act of
1966), the Bible amendment to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
that led to the establishment of the Alaska parks, interpretation, and
environmental education. Closely identified with the expansionist
policies of the Johnson-Udall administration, Hartzog was less
appreciated by its successor and was dismissed in late 1972, and went on
to practice law in Washington, D.C.. George Hartzog died in
2008.
Suggested reading: George B. Hartzog, Jr. Papers, 1916-1992;
George B. Hartzog, Jr., Battling for the National Parks (Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell, 1988); Kathy Mengak, Reshaping Our National Parks and Their Guardians:
The Legacy of George B. Hartzog Jr., (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012);
The national parks, 1965 : oral history transcript / and related material, 1965-1973;
Oral History Interview with George B. Hartzog, Jr. (2007)
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Ronald H. Walker, January 7, 1973 - January 3, 1975 |
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At 36,
Ronald H. Walker was the youngest Director to hold the office and the
second appointed from outside NPS. A soft-spoken and affable young man,
he had been President Nixon's special assistant responsible for both
domestic and international travel. Walker was born in Bryan, Tex., took
a political science degree at the University of Arizona, served as an
Army officer in Okinawa, and as an insurance and marketing executive.
President Richard Nixon appointed Walker, an advance man on his staff,
to replace George Hartzog in January 1973. Lacking park experience,
Walker made Russell E. Dickenson, an NPS careerist, his deputy. Walker
advocated a policy of "stabilization," foreseeing that NPS funding and
staffing would be inadequate for a continuing high influx of new parks
and program responsibilities. Fourteen areas nevertheless joined the
park system during his two years as director, including the first two
national preserves. As Director, he realigned NPS regional boundaries
and added North Atlantic and Rocky Mountain offices. Under Walker, the
early planning was done for the Servicewide American Revolution
Bicentennial activities. Nixon's resignation in August 1974 presaged
Walker's replacement five months later, where he became senior partner
of Korn/Ferry International, later becoming the managing director for
their Washington, D.C., offices. In 2009, Walker became president of the
Richard Nixon Foundation, and a year later was promoted to Chairman of
their Board of Directors.
Suggested reading: Interview;
Register of the Walker Papers, 1973-1974
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Gary E. Everhardt, January 13, 1975 - May 27, 1977 |
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The ninth
Director, Gary Everhardt was born in Lenoir, N.C., took a civil
engineering degree at North Carolina State, served as an Army officer,
and became an NPS engineer in 1957 and rose to the superintendency of
Grand Teton National Park in 1972. Favorable notice there propelled him
to the directorship in January 1975. As director he oversaw a great
increase in park development and interpretive programming for the
bicentennial of the American Revolution (NPS conducted activities at 250
sites coast-to-coast). Everhardt pushed wilderness designation and
hailed a Presidential proposal for a $1.5 billion Bicentennial Land
Heritage Program. During his Directorship, a policy council was created,
which produced management objectives for the Service. Other firsts were
the first national symposium on urban recreation; the first national
conference on scientific research; the first Native crafts sales program
in the parks; and the first international park publication, PARKS. The
return of an NPS careerist to the job was much applauded by park
employees and supporters, but Everhardt's leadership fell short of
expectations, and the new Carter administration returned him to the
field as Blue Ridge Parkway's superintendent in May 1977.
Suggested reading:
Gary Everhardt Papers, 1936-2005
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William Joseph Whalen, July 5, 1977 - May 13, 1980 |
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Again NPS
ranks produced a Director. William J. Whalen had 12 years of varied NPS
service before his Directorship. A native of Burgettstown, Pa., he
joined NPS as a job corps counselor in 1965 and became well-known in
Washington, D.C., as manager of the Summer in the Parks programs. Whalen
advanced to posts in National Capital Parks and Yosemite National Park
(deputy superintendent) before managing all NPS areas in the Bay Area of
San Francisco, including Golden Gate National Recreation Area, in 1972.
His experience in the burgeoning urban parks field contributed to his
appointment as director in July 1977, yet the most significant event of
his tenure was President Jimmy Carter's proclamation of much Alaska
wilderness as national monuments in 1978, doubling the acreage under NPS
jurisdiction. Management of an expanded System including vast new parks
in Alaska challenged his best talents. Friction with park concessioners
led to congressional calls for Whalen's removal in 1980, and Secretary
of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus returned him to Golden Gate, as general
superintendent of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He left the NPS
in 1983. Bill Wahlen died in 2006.
Suggested reading: Interview
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Russell Errett Dickenson, May 15, 1980 - March 3, 1985 |
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A Marine
Corps veteran and graduate of Arizona State College, Russell E.
Dickenson worked his way up through the NPS ranks. A native of Melissa,
Tex., Dickenson began his NPS career as a ranger at Grand Canyon
National Park in 1946 and served in a wide range of park and central
office assignments most prominently as chief, Division of
Resource Management in the Midwest Region; in 1967, he transferred to
WASO as chief of New Area Studies and Master Planning; served as
Regional Director of the National Capital Region from 1969 to 1973; was
the Deputy NPS Director from 1973 to 1975; and Pacific Northwest
regional director for 4-1/2 years before ascending to the
directorship in May 1980. Having risen through the traditional ranks and
enjoying the respect of his colleagues, Dickenson was enthusiastically
welcomed to the job and supported in his effort to restore
organizational stability after a succession of short-term directors. As
when Walker's deputy, he preferred improving the service's stewardship
of its existing parks to seeking new ones. The only Interior Department
bureau chief to be retained by the Reagan administration in 1981,
Dickenson obtained its support and that of Congress for the Park
Restoration and Improvement Program, which devoted more than a billion
dollars over five years to park resources and facilities. Dickenson has
received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Award in
1972, for his work in urban park management. Dickenson retired in March
1985 and died in 2008.
Suggested reading: Interview;
Register of the Russell E. Dickenson Papers 1930-2008
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William Penn Mott, Jr., May 17, 1985 - April 16, 1989 |
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William
Penn Mott, Jr., worked for the NPS as a landscape architect from 1933 to
1940 but devoted most of his later career to California's local and
state parks. From 1946 to 1985 he served successively as Oakland's park
superintendent, the East Bay Regional Park District's general manager,
director of the State Department of Parks and Recreation under Governor
Ronald Reagan, and general manager of the East Bay Zoological Society.
Following his appointment as NPS director in May 1985, Mott issued a
12-point plan to protect the parks and their resources, better serve the
public, and improve the service's management. He took a strong interest
in park interpretation and returned the NPS to a more expansionist
posture after a near-moratorium on park additions during President
Reagan's first term. When the Bush administration replaced him with its
own appointee in April 1989, Mott remained on the rolls as special
assistant to the western regional director overseeing planning for the
Presidio of San Francisco. He died in 1992 of pneumonia.
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James Michael Ridenour, April 17, 1989 - January 20, 1993 |
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James M.
Ridenour was a Vietnam War veteran having served as a commander of a
medical detachment. Ridenour served as director of the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources for eight years before becoming NPS
director in April 1989. Less willing than Mott to accept park system
additions driven by local economic development interests, Ridenour spoke
out against the "thinning of the blood" of the system and sought to
retain the initiative from Congress in charting its expansion. He
favored alternatives to full federal acquisition of proposed parklands,
stressed the importance of working with other government bodies and
private entities to protect lands in and outside the system, and sought
to achieve a greater financial return to the NPS from park concessions.
In 1991, Ridenour assembled a diverse group of park and public
officials, public interest groups and individuals at Vail, Colorado,
which developed a program known as the Vail Agenda, whose goal was
establishment of a set of standards to guide NPS into the 21st century.
He departed with the Bush administration in January 1993.
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Roger George Kennedy, June 1, 1993 - March 29, 1997 |
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Roger G.
Kennedy was a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and
moved to Washington, D.C. in 1953 to work as a civil trial lawyer with
the Department of Justice. Kennedy became a news correspondent before
returning to his native Minnesota to serve as chairman/vice president for
a number of financial institutions. The Clinton administration selected
Roger G. Kennedy to head the NPS in 1993. He was especially concerned
about expanding the service's educational role and moved to enlarge its
presence beyond the parks via the Internet. During his tenure the NPS
restructured its field operations and sharply reduced its central office
staffs as part of a government-wide effort to downsize the federal
bureaucracy. Kennedy resigned at the end of President Clinton's first
term in 1997. He died from melanoma in 2011, at the age of 85.
Suggested reading: Interview;
Oral History Interview with Roger G. Kennedy (2005)
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Robert George Stanton, August 4, 1997 - January, 2001 |
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Beginning
as a seasonal ranger at Grand Teton National Park in 1962, Robert (Bob) G.
Stanton served the NPS as a ranger, superintendent, deputy regional
director, assistant director, and regional director of the National
Capital Region before retiring in January 1997. That August the Clinton
administration restored him to active duty, making him the first NPS
careerist since Dickenson to head the bureau. Also its first African
American director, Stanton had taken particular interest in increasing
the diversity of the service's staff and public programs to better serve
minority populations.
Suggested reading:
Register of the Robert Stanton Papers 1962-2006
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Fran P. Mainella, July 18, 2001-October 16, 2006 |
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Fran P.
Mainella is a Connecticut native, earning her bachelor's degree from
the University of Connecticut and a master's degree from Central
Connecticut State College. Mainella was nominated by President Bush on
June 4, 2001 to the position of Director of the National Park Service.
On July 18, 2001 Ms. Mainella became the 16th Director of the National
Park Service and the first woman to head the 85-year-old agency.
Mainella came to the National Park Service with more than 30 years of
experience in the park management and recreation field, including 12
years as director of Florida's State Parks. Mainella is a visiting
scholar at Clemson University.
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Mary Amelia Bomar, October 17, 2006-January 20, 2009 |
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On October
17th, 2006, Mary A. Bomar was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and became
the 17th Director of the National Park Service. Ms. Bomar is the first
naturalized citizen to be the Director of the National Park Service.
Previously, Bomar served as the Northeast Regional Director managing 100
parks in thirteen northeastern states. Bomar served as the
Superintendent at Independence National Historical Park, was the first
superintendent at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the first NPS
Oklahoma State Coordinator, acting superintendent at Rocky Mountain
National Park and assistant superintendent at the San Antonio Missions
National Historical Park. Bomar's National Park Service career began in
the financial arena at Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas where
she served as the Administrative Officer.
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Jonathan B. Jarvis, October 2, 2009-January, 3 2017 |
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Jonathan (Jon)
B. Jarvis was sworn in as the 18th director on Oct. 2, 2009, by Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar. He began his National Park Service career as a
seasonal interpretive ranger on the National Mall in 1976. Jarvis is a
Virginia native and graduate of The College of William and Mary. Served
as Pacific West Region Director 2002-09 where he was responsible for 54
national parks in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii
and the Pacific Islands of Guam, Saipan and American Samoa and community
revitalization programs that serve those states. He previously served as
superintendent of Mount Rainier and Wrangell-St. Elias national parks,
and Craters of the Moon National Monument. Other career positions:
protection ranger, resource management specialist, park biologist, and
chief of natural and cultural resources.
Suggested
reading: Jonathan B. Jarvis, A Call to Action (National Park Service, August 25, 2001).
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Michael T. Reynolds, January, 3 2017-January 9, 2018 • Acting Director |
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Michael T. Reynolds
(Mike) is the acting director of the National Park Service. Since August 1 2016,
Reynolds has served as the deputy director of Operations for the National Park
Service (NPS). In this capacity, he was responsible for the day-to-day
operations of the seven regions and the 413 parks nation-wide for the National
Park Service, as well as program areas in Washington, DC. In April 2014,
Reynolds was assigned to the National Park Service Headquarters in Washington,
DC, as the associate director for Workforce, Relevancy, and Inclusion. Reynolds
was appointed regional director of the Midwest Region in 2011. Prior to his
appointment as the Midwest regional director, Reynolds served as deputy regional
director of the Northeast Region in Philadelphia for four years. Earlier in his
career, he was superintendent of Fire Island National Seashore, and his NPS
career also includes stints as a resource manager, planner, and division chief
at Yosemite National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Cape Cod National Seashore,
Curecanti National Recreation Area, and the NPS Denver Service Center.
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Paul Daniel Smith, January 9, 2018-September 30, 2019 • Deputy Director |
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Paul Daniel (Dan)
Smith was appointed Deputy Director of the National Park Service. Smith
served as superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park from 2004 to
2015. Smith's other assignments in the National Park Service include serving
as Special Assistant to the National Park Service Director and Assistant
Director of Legislative and Congressional Affairs. He also served as Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the
Interior. Smith also worked at the General Services Administration for ten
years. In addition to Smith's Executive Branch experience held numerous
important roles in the Legislative Branch as a staff member for a U.S.
senator, a congressman, and two congressional committees. Smith was born in
Maine. A Vietnam War veteran, Smith served in the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry.
He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Master of Science
in Recreation Administration from the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill.
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David Vela, October 1, 2019-August 7, 2020 • Deputy Director |
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David Vela has served as
the superintendent of Grand Teton National Park & the John D. Rockefeller,
Jr. Memorial Parkway since 2014. He previously served as associate director for
Workforce, Relevancy and Inclusion in the NPS Washington headquarters offices.
He also served for over four years as the NPS Southeast Regional Director and as
superintendent of Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site, Lyndon B.
Johnson National Historical Park, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Since April 15, Vela has served as the NPS acting deputy director for
operations. In the role of deputy director exercising the authority of the
director, Vela will lead an agency with more than 20,000 employees, a nearly $3
billion budget, and 419 national parks. National parks attract more than 300
million visitors every year, generating over $30 billion in economic benefits
across the nation.
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Margaret Everson, August 7, 2020-January 20, 2021 • Counselor to the Secretary, exercising the delegated authority of the National Park Service Director |
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Margaret Everson served
as Counselor to Secretary of Interior David L. Bernhardt supporting the NPS and
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Principle Deputy Director of the Fish and
Wildlife Service. Prior to rejoining the Fish and Wildlife Service, she worked
as Ducks Unlimited's Chief Policy Officer for four years. Everson served in a
variety of roles that touched wildlife, conservation and natural resources
matters. Prior to joining Ducks Unlimited, she worked as a consultant for state
agencies, as well as an assistant attorney general of Kentucky and general
counsel for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. From 2006 to
2008, Everson was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to serve as
counselor to Dale Hall, then Director of the Service. Prior to joining the
Service, she was with the Department of the Interior's Solicitor's office for
four years and the former chair of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners.
Everson received her Bachelor of Science in biology with a concentration in
marine biology from St. Francis College and her Juris Doctorate from Vermont Law
School.
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Shawn Benge, August 31, 2020-November 18, 2021 • Deputy Director |
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Shawn Benge served as the
acting deputy director for operations starting in October 2019, is responsible
for the day-to-day operations of the NPS. Before his current assignment, Shawn
served as the associate director for the Park Planning, Facilities, and Lands
(PPFL) Directorate. In his role overseeing PPFL, he provided leadership, policy
development, program accountability, and budget formulation in the functional
areas of park planning and development; special resource studies; land
acquisition and related real estate operations; facility and infrastructure
design, construction, and maintenance. Prior to coming to Washington in 2016,
Benge served as the deputy regional director/chief of staff for Interior's
Region 2. In addition, Benge led the regional program areas of visitor and
resource protection, facilities management, interpretation and education, and
communications. He served as a primary bureau official responsible for managing
NPS oil spill response activities associated with Deepwater Horizon. Benge
served in numerous capacities at the park levelincluding superintendent
assignmentsat Big Bend National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and Everglades National Park
and a tour at the Denver Service Center, the NPS's central planning and design
office.
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Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III, November 18, 2021-present • Director |
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Chuck Sams worked in
State and Tribal governments and the non-profit natural resource and
conservation management fields for more than 25 years, serving as a Council
Member to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, appointed by Oregon
Governor Kate Brown. He has held a variety of roles with the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, including their Executive Director. He has
also had roles as the President/Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Country
Conservancy, Executive Director for the Umatilla Tribal Community Foundation,
National Director of the Tribal & Native Lands Program for the Trust for
Public Land, Executive Director for the Columbia Slough Watershed Council,
Executive Director for the Community Energy Project, and President/Chief
Executive Officer for the Earth Conservation Corps. Chuck holds a bachelor's of
science degree in Business Administration from Concordia University-Portland and
a master's of legal studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of
Oklahoma. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy. Chuck is an enrolled member, Cayuse
and Walla Walla, of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
where he lives with his wife and their four children.
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Additional insights into the history of the National Park Service can be
gleaned from the writings of the Secretaries of the Interior (prior to the
establishment of the National Park Service) and the NPS Directors in their
Annual Reports.
Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior (as written by the following Secretaries of the Interior)
(Ethan A. Hitchcock, 1899-1907 James R. Garfield, 1907-1909 Richard A. Ballinger, 1909-1911 Walter L. Fisher, 1911-1913 Franklin K. Lane, 1913-1920)
1904 •
1905 •
1906 •
1907 •
1908 •
1909 •
1910 •
1911 •
1912 •
1913 •
1914 •
1915 •
1916
Report of the General Superintendent and Landscape Engineer of National Parks to the Secretary of the Interior (HTML edition) (Mark Daniels, 1915)
Annual report of the superintendent of national parks to the secretary of the interior for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1916 (R.B. Marshall, 1916)
Progress in the Development of the National Parks (Stephen Mather, 1916)
Directors' Annual Reports
1917 •
1918 •
1919 •
1920 •
1921 •
1921-1923 •
1924-1926 •
1929-1932 •
1942-1943 •
1946-1950 •
1952-1954 •
1955 •
1958-1963
(Portions of the above biographies were taken from 65th
Anniversary National Park Service)
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