Conrad L. Wirth

Conrad L. Wirth
Born	(1899-12-01)December 1, 1899 Hartford, Connecticut
Died	July 25, 1993(1993-07-25) (aged 93) Williamstown, Massachusetts
Occupation	Landscape architect, Director of the National Park Service

Conrad Louis Wirth (December 1, 1899 – July 25, 1993) was an American landscape architect, conservationist, and park service administrator. He served as the director of the National Park Service (NPS) between 1951 and 1964.

Wirth was born in Hartford, Connecticut, where his father Theodore was park superintendent. Later, Theodore moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he became superintendent of the Minneapolis Park System. Conrad earned a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape gardening from Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst). He first came to the Washington, D.C., area to work for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and he joined the NPS in 1931. With the coming of the New Deal he supervised the service's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program in the state parks. His administrative ability made him a successor to Director Arthur E. Demaray, whom he served as associate director before advancing to the top job in December 1951. Wirth's crowning achievement was Mission 66, a 10-year, billion-dollar program to upgrade park facilities and services by the 50th anniversary of the NPS in 1966. Wirth submitted his resignation to President John Kennedy in the fall of 1963 and left the directorship in early 1964, after recommending George Hartzog as his successor.

He went on to supervise the Interior Department's CCC program. A member of the National Geographic Society's Board of Trustees, he was also active in conservation and Park Service alumni affairs.^[1] He died in his sleep in 1993.^[2]

Further reading

• Wirth, Conrad L. Parks, Politics, and the People. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.

References

National parks of the United States Acadia American Samoa Arches Badlands Big Bend Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns Channel Islands Congaree Crater Lake Cuyahoga Valley Death Valley Denali Dry Tortugas Everglades Gates of the Arctic Glacier Glacier Bay Grand Canyon Grand Teton Great Basin Great Sand Dunes Great Smoky Mountains Guadalupe Mountains Haleakalā Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Hot Springs Isle Royale Joshua Tree Katmai Kenai Fjords Kings Canyon Kobuk Valley Lake Clark Lassen Volcanic Mammoth Cave Mesa Verde Mount Rainier North Cascades Olympic Petrified Forest Pinnacles Redwood Rocky Mountain Saguaro Sequoia Shenandoah Theodore Roosevelt Virgin Islands Voyageurs Wind Cave Wrangell–St. Elias Yellowstone Yosemite Zion                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         List of national parks of the United States (by elevation)