Arno B. Cammerer
Encyclopedia
Arno Berthold Cammerer was the third director of the U.S. National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

.

Cammerer was born in Arapahoe, Nebraska
Arapahoe, Nebraska
Arapahoe is a city in Furnas County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,028 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Arapahoe is located at ....

 in 1883. He was the son of a Lutheran pastor. He went to Washington, D.C in 1904 to work as a civil service bookkeeper, and earned a Bachelor of Law degree at Georgetown Law School in 1911.

The U.S. National Park Service's first director, Stephen Mather, recognized Cammerer's competence as executive secretary of the Fine Arts Commission, and appointed him as assistant director in 1919, replacing previous assistant director Horace M. Albright
Horace M. Albright
Horace Marden Albright was an American conservationist.Horace Albright was born 1890 in Bishop, California, the son of George Albright, a miner. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1912 , and earned a law degree from Georgetown University...

, who then became Director. He served as Mather's right-hand man in Washington and acted for him in his frequent absences over the next decade. After the project to found Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North...

 proved expensive, Cammerer secured a promise from John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...

, to match $5 million in the acquisition of Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the U.S. state of Virginia. This national park is long and narrow, with the broad Shenandoah River and valley on the west side, and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont on the east...

 lands. He advanced to the new rank of associate director on January 12, 1929.

Directorship of the U.S. National Park Service

Cammerer succeeded Albright as director on August 10, 1933, the same day as the transfer of the national capitol parks, historic sites, memorials, and monuments from the War and Agriculture departments. Under his leadership the NPS tripled the number of areas served, increased visitations from two to 16 million, became involved with recreational area planning and management, began to survey and record historic sites and buildings outside the existing parks, and worked with Congress to pass the Historic Sites Act as well as a law establishing the National Park Foundation.

In 1938, he received the Cornelius Amory Pugsley
Cornelius Amory Pugsley
Cornelius Amory Pugsley was the Democratic Congressman from New York's 16th congressional district from 1901 to 1903. He was also the President New York State Bankers Association in 1913. He created the Pugsley Medal in 1928.-Biography:He was born in Peekskill, New York on July 17, 1850 to Gilbert...

 Gold Medal. The Pugsley Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the promotion and development of public parks in the United States and is given out by the American Academy of Park and Recreation Administrators along with the National Park Foundation
National Park Foundation
Chartered by Congress, the National Park Foundation is the official charity of America’s nearly 400 national parks. Funds contributed to the Foundation are invested directly into the national parks...

.

Strained relations with Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...

 Harold L. Ickes
Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes was a United States administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest serving Cabinet member in U.S. history next to James Wilson. Ickes...

 impaired Cammerer's effectiveness and health, and he stepped down in 1940 following a heart attack the previous year. He then became the service's eastern regional director.

Death and legacy

After suffering another heart attack, Cammerer died on April 30, 1941. The official NPS biography says that "Cammerer's contributions to the National Park Service were legion."

Mount Cammerer
Mount Cammerer
Mount Cammerer is a mountain on the northeastern fringe of the Great Smoky Mountains, in the Southeastern United States. The mountain is situated on the state line between Cocke County, Tennessee and Haywood County, North Carolina...

, on the Northeastern fringe of the Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the...

is named for Arno as he had played a prominent role in the acquisition of the park.
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