NPS Mourns Passing Of Pete Hart
Art Allen
INTERMOUNTAIN REGION
NPS Mourns Passing Of Pete Hart
Pete M. Hart, beloved National Park Service leader with more than 33 years of service, died on Friday, January 29th, at University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, after a courageous battle with leukemia.
Hart was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML) in January 2007. He underwent treatment in Seattle for six months and returned home to Livingston, Montana, after achieving complete remission in July 2007. After 18 months of weekly chemotherapy, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in December 2008.
“Pete’s death is a tremendous loss to his family, to the National Park Service and to the people he served,” said Intermountain regional director Mike Snyder. “Pete touched many lives, his legacy will remain forever in the rangers he mentored and in the many national parks who were blessed by his presence. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. On a personal note, Pete was instrumental in helping me cope with cancer, and for that, I will be forever grateful.”
At the time of his death, Hart was 67 years old. He carried an impressive uninterrupted running streak of several decades running through sickness and bad weather, only stopping to hike the Appalachian Trail. He was considered to be one of the greatest and most influential leaders of the modern National Park Service. He dedicated his career to conservation and courageous leadership in the field of natural and cultural resource protection. He touched the lives of thousands of National Park Service employees and influenced the overall management of the entire national park system and its service to more than 280 million annual visitors.
Hart was a native of Connecticut. He received an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont and later earned a master’s degree in geography from the University of Colorado, where he did research at Rocky Mountain National Park. He served as an army engineer officer in Vietnam and was awarded a Bronze Star.
Hart started his NPS career in 1968 as a park ranger at Albright Training
Center at Grand Canyon. He later worked at Mount Rainier and Grand Teton
National Parks, where he was primarily involved in search and rescue and
climbing management. Additional assignments included district ranger in Yosemite
and chief ranger at both Cape Cod National Seashore and Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. In 1990 he became superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National
Park in the badlands of North Dakota. Hart then served in an extended detail as
acting chief ranger of the NPS in Washington, D.C. In 1995 he was appointed
superintendent of New River Gorge National River, Gauley River National
Recreation Area and the Bluestone National Scenic River all in West
Virginia.
Hart retired from the NPS is 2001, then completed a 2,168-mile hike on
the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. After relocating to Livingston,
Montana, he returned as interim superintendent of Glacier National Park in 2002.
In 2003 he spent several months filling in as interim superintendent at Black
Canyon of the Gunnison and Curecanti National Recreation Area. The following
year he returned again to Glacier as acting deputy superintendent. In 2006 (from
January to May) he again filled in as interim superintendent of Big Thicket
National Preserve in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, and in September
he was tapped as the temporary, acting deputy superintendent at Grand Canyon
National Park.
His acting management positions were the highlight of his
retirement. The National Park Service remained his consuming passion throughout
his life. He actively worked for the protection of national parks from his
hospital room while fighting cancer.
Hart is survived by his beloved wife, Sally, his son Chris, and daughter Wendy. His daughter, Wendy Ross, currently carries on his NPS legacy as management assistant at Glacier National Park.
The NPS family extends its heartfelt condolences to Pete’s family at this difficult time and fondly remembers one of its own. No plans for services have yet been made, but condolences may be sent to Sally Hart and family at 06 Riverside Drive, Livingston, MT 59047. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers or gifts, donations be made to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The American Red Cross, or The Employee & Alumni Association of the National Park Service.
Contact Information
Name: Patricia Turley
Phone
Number: 303-969-2701
Email: patrici...@nps.gov
Bob Mackreth
a challenging place to work, with some four million visitors a year,
and several high-profile legal issues placing management under a
microscope. The superintendent was demanding, and the two district
rangers who reported to Pete hadn't spoken civilly to one another in
years.
Somehow, in this pressure cooker, Pete provided an axis of stability,
and more than once, his calm perspective kept us all from going off
the deep end.
Others can more fully describe his achievements in protecting the
national parks, but I can vouch that nobody looked after their staff
better than Pete Hart did.