George B. Hartzog Jr., a former director of the National Park Service who led an unprecedented expansion of the nation's system of parks, wildlife refuges and historic sites and who helped secure passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, has died. He was 88.
A resident of McLean, Va., Hartzog died June 27 at Virginia Hospital Center of complications from diabetes and kidney disease.
In almost nine years as director, Hartzog used charisma, political savvy and deep knowledge of the nation's park system to broaden the scope of Park Service programs and to increase their popularity. He expanded the service's mission from wilderness conservation to make it the principal guardian of the nation's historic patrimony.
He added more than 70 areas to the Park Service, totaling 2.7 million acres, and doubled attendance at the nation's parks and historic sites.
"He was an empire builder," said Robert M. Utley, who was the Park Service's chief historian under Hartzog. "His vision fit right into Lyndon Johnson's Great Society ideas."
Except for the Park Service's founders, Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, Utley said, "I judge George Hartzog the greatest director in the history of the service."
Hartzog expanded the reach of the Park Service in urban areas, introduced programs for volunteers and inner-city youths and promoted living-history interpretations by park rangers, now standard at historic sites around the country. He developed the concept of cultural parks with the establishment of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
In 1966, Hartzog was a key proponent of the National Historic Preservation Act, which increased the range of historically significant properties and created the National Register of Historic Places. The register is administered by the Park Service.
In 1969, when his budget was cut by President Nixon, Hartzog made a daring countermove: He closed all the national parks, including the Washington Monument and Grand Canyon, two days a week.
"It was unheard of," he told Parks & Recreation Magazine in 2005. "Even my own staff thought I was crazy."
As public outcry grew, Congress restored the funding.
Hartzog expanded opportunities for women and minorities. He appointed the first African American park superintendent and promoted women to top jobs. Stewart L. Udall, the former secretary of the Interior who named Hartzog the Park Service's director in 1964, once called him "one of the most inspiring leaders I worked with during my years in the federal government. . . . George Hartzog reminds us of the glories of public service and the legacies our best bureaucrats leave to future generations."
