During the early 1950s the park administrative organization continued to expand and be refined in the postwar years. An organization chart for the park prepared in June 1955, for instance, reflected the increasing complexity of park operations and administrative efforts to deal with that complexity. The park staff consisted of 32 full-time permanent positions. The office of the superintendent consisted of Superintendent Thomas J . Williams, Assistant Superintendent Gerald E. Mernin, and Secretary Mae Hammack. U.S. Commissioner Frank Van Dyke and School Teacher Zelma Pooh related directly to the superintendent. The park staff was organized into five divisions whose chiefs answered directly to the superintendent:
Protection Division–Chief Ranger, Carlock E. Johnson
Engineering Division–Park Engineer, William E. Loftis, Jr.
Landscape Division–Landscape Architect (similar responsibilities for Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lava Beds National Monument)
Administrative Division–Chief Clerk, Marvin L. Nelson
Interpretive Division–Chief Naturalist, Harry C. Parker
Two divisions were further divided into sections. The engineering division had five sections:
Communications and Power Section–Electrician, Alvord H. France
Roads and Trails Section–Mixed Gang Foreman, Richard O. Varnum
Garage and Shop Section–Mechanic, Benjamin Pooh
Water-Sewage Sanitation Section–Plumber, Harvey E. Clift
Carpentry-Painting Section–Seasonal Employees
The administrative division was also divided into five sections:
Fiscal Section–Fiscal Accountant, LeRoy E. Marcroft
Personnel Section–Personnel Clerk, Marion R. Anderson
Procurement and Property–Supply Clerk, Basil G. Curtis
Mess Operation–Contractor
Warehouse Section–Supply Clerk, George S. Woodley
From time to time park administrative offices and procedures were reorganized. In 1957, for instance, the National Park Service initiated a new accounting system and financial reporting procedures in all of the field financial offices. As part of this realignment of Park Service financial management field offices were reduced from 28 to 24 offices and their functions transferred to the regional offices having jurisdiction over them. The four offices closed were those at Crater Lake, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave, and the Southwestern National Monuments headquarters.
During the next several years various changes were made in the park organizational structure to promote more efficient administration at Crater Lake. [75] A park organizational chart prepared in October 1962, for instance, indicated that the park staff consisted of the office of the superintendent and four divisions: ranger, maintenance and operation of physical facilities, interpretation, and administration. The ranger division was divided into the Annie Spring and Red Cone districts. The maintenance and operation division was divided into three sections: buildings and utilities, roads and trails, and garage and shop. The administration division consisted of five sections: personnel, school, mess operation, procurement and property, and warehouse.[76]
During the mid-1960s the National Park Service adopted administrative policies based on management-by-objective standards. In September 1964 park management at Crater Lake prepared management objectives to achieve and implement the overall NPS management objectives. The park objectives, which may be seen in Appendix E, were approved in December and served as the basis for park administrative policy and strategy for the next decade. [77]
The issue of establishing a year-round park headquarters again became a topic of considerable discussion during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Sites under consideration included Medford, the south entrance, and Fort Klamath. For years the superintendent’s office had been maintained at Medford year-round with the superintendent and his secretary moving to park headquarters generally from mid-June to mid-October. By 1959 the dual headquarters arrangement had become “burdensome and inefficient.” Duplication of effort occurred frequently and travel and communication costs were increasing constantly. These factors led NPS Associate Director Eivind Scoyen on March 17, 1959, to issue a field decision that the Medford and park headquarters offices be consolidated into year-round administrative headquarters at Munson Valley.
