Published October 1, 2011 12:00AM
Courtesy of National Park Service, via National Parks Traveler
When planning a National Parks vacation, you probably go to the nps.gov Web site to find a campground, map prospective hikes, and check for warnings. Former National Park Service director Roger Kennedy, who died this past Friday at his home in Maryland at the age of 85, made sure the parks had an online presence that catered to all. The head of the NPS from 1993 to 1997, he added eight parks and expanded two. After his time as chief, in a 2002 interview, he stood up against proposed NPS budget cuts that might reduce attention given to minority accomplishments.
“The impulse to prune back the budgets and get rid of the newer parks…was all code for: ‘Let’s stop paying attention to blacks, Hispanics, women.’”
You can read more about Kennedy in the following three obituaries: The New York Times, National Parks Traveler, The Washington Post.
–Joe Spring
@joespring