Chief
Historians fo the National Park Service
Verne
E. Chatelain (1931-1937) was hired by Director Horace M. Albright
the year after the NPS acquired its first eastern historical areas,
Colonial and George Washington Birthplace national monuments. His
role in guiding and overseeing NPS historical activities increased
dramatically with the influx of historic properties transferred
from other federal agencies in 1933 and the historic sites survey
authorized by the 1935 Historic Sites Act. He prepared the first
criteria for historical additions to the national park system and
favored a thematic approach to the system's expansion, arguing that
it should include ãall types of areas that are historically important
in our national development.ä He later became a history professor
at the University of Maryland and died in 1991.
Ronald
F. Lee (1938-1951) came from the University of Minnesota to
Shiloh National Military Park as a Civilian Conservation Corps historical
foreman in 1933. As chief historian from 1938 to 1951 (excepting
the war years), assistant director and chief of the Interpretation
Division from 1951 to 1960, and regional director in Philadelphia
from 1960 to 1966, he was notable for establishing connections and
building relationships that extended the reach of the NPS beyond
the parks. He was instrumental in the creation of the National Trust
for Historic Preservation in 1947ö49, and in 1959 he proposed the
program of designating nationally significant properties outside
the parks as national historic landmarks. In retirement he wrote
histories of the Antiquities Act, the national military parks, and
the national park system. He died in 1972.
Herbert
E. Kahler (1951-1964) came from the University of Minnesota
to Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park as a Civilian
Conservation Corps historical foreman in 1933. From 1934 to 1940
he served as superintendent of Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
and Morristown National Historical Park before coming to Washington
as Lee's assistant. As chief historian from 1951 to 1964, he oversaw
the service's expanded historical development and interpretation
under Mission 66 and implementation of the national historic landmarks
program. He was a founder of the Eastern National Park and Monument
Association in 1947, its chairman from 1948 to 1964, and its executive
secretary from his NPS retirement in 1964 until 1973. He died in
1993.
Robert
M. Utley (1964-1972) began his NPS career in 1947 as a historical
aide at Custer Battlefield National Monument during his college
summers. After graduate schooling at Indiana University and military
duty he returned to the NPS in 1957 as regional historian in Santa
Fe. As chief historian from 1964 to 1972 and subsequently as director
of the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation and assistant
director for park historic preservation, he played key roles in
implementing the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and
advancing NPS preservation policies. He left the NPS in 1977 to
become deputy executive director of the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation. Since retiring from that position in 1980, he has
devoted his full energies to the history of the American West, on
which he has published more than a dozen books winning him a national
reputation.
A.
Russell Mortensen (1972-1973) was director of the Utah State
Historical Society, director of the University of Utah Press, and
a professor of history at the University of Utah before joining
the NPS in 1970 as chief of the Branch of Park History under Utley.
He served only briefly as chief historian in 1972ö73 before becoming
assistant director in charge of the Office of Archeology and Historic
Preservation, which was then confined to programs largely outside
the national park system. As a founder and past president of the
American Association for State and Local History, he had many connections
that facilitated relationships with state and local preservation
interests. He retired at the end of 1975 and died in 1995.
Harry
W. Pfanz (1974-1980) left the Army's historical office in 1956
to become a historian at Gettysburg National Military Park. He completed
his doctorate in history at Ohio State University while there and
moved in 1966 to Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, where he
rose to the superintendency. He came to Washington as chief of the
Eastern Service Center's historical staff in 1971 and became chief
of the Branch of Park History under Mortensen when the center moved
to Denver in 1972. As chief historian from 1974 until his retirement
in 1980, Pfanz was active in planning for the American Revolution
Bicentennial and in refining NPS preservation policies and guidelines.
In retirement he has become a preeminent Gettysburg scholar, publishing
two acclaimed books on the battle with a third forthcoming.
Edwin
C. Bearss (1981-1994) left the Army's historical office in 1955
to become a historian at Vicksburg National Military Park. From
1958 to 1966 he remained at Vicksburg but reported to the Philadelphia
regional office as regional research historian. He came to Washington
as a research historian on Utley's staff in 1966 and remained duty-stationed
there after being reassigned to the Eastern Service Center in 1970
and the Denver Service Center in 1972. He served as chief historian
from 1981 to 1994 and as special assistant to the director for military
sites for an additional year. Upon his retirement in 1995 he was
given the unique title of National Park Service Historian Emeritus.
A renowned authority on the Civil War, he has devoted much of his
attention to battlefield preservation and interpretation. As chief
historian he played a key role in launching major battlefield preservation
initiatives, and he remains a nationally prominent battlefield tour
leader.
Dwight
T. Pitcaithley (1995-2005) began his NPS career in 1963 as a seasonal
laborer at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. After receiving his doctorate
in history from Texas Tech University in 1976, he became a historian
for the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe followed by appointments
as regional historian in Boston (1979-89) and chief of cultural
resources in the National Capital Region (1989-95). As chief historian
he focused on developing training programs for historians and
interpreters, facilitating the incorporation of new scholarship
into park interpretive programs, and creating partnerships between
the NPS and other humanities-based institutions. Dwight Pitcaithley is now
a college professor at New Mexico State University.
Robert K.
Sutton (2007) began his career as a park ranger with Fort Vancouver National
Historic Site. Subsequent positions include museum curator with the Oregon Historical
Society; historian with the Oregon State Parks; architectural historian with the NPS
Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico; historian with Independence
National Historic Park; Assistant Professor in the History Department and Director
of the Public History Program at Arizona State University; and Assistant Superintendent
and historian at National Capital Parks-East. Since 1991, he has served as adjunct
professor of history at George Mason University. In 2000, Dr. Sutton received the
Department of the Interior’s Meritorious Service Award.
Dr. Sutton served as the Superintendent of the Manassas National Battlefield Park
since 1995 where he initiated a major symposium on the Civil War that attracted renowned
scholars and developed an interpretive institute for Civil War park rangers on creating
new ways to interpret the Civil War.
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