Conrad L. Wirth

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[[|250px]] Conrad L. Wirth
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Conrad L. Wirth (1899–1993) was an American administrator. He served as the director of the National Park Service between 1951 and 1964.

Wirth was born in Hartford, Connecticut; his father was park superintendent for the city, and later for Minneapolis. Conrad earned a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape gardening from Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts). He first came to 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. After the 1961 change of administrations, Wirth fell out of favor with Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, and departed in early 1964.

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. He died in 1993.

Further reading

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

References

Preceded by Arthur E. Demaray

Director of the National Park Service 1951–1964

Succeeded by George B. Hartzog, Jr.