This is an oral history interview given on April 2nd, 1991 in Trinidad, California. I am interviewing Don Spalding today at his residence. With me are Ron Mastroqiuseppe and Bill Donati of Redwood National Park, both formerly of Crater Lake. We will begin the interview by asking Don some of the question I sent him several weeks ago, and then broaden our discussion when we get into Crater Lake a little bit further. We’ll also discuss the Redwoods Studies that were conducted from the Medford Office in the late 1960’s.
Bold type, Steve Mark Indented bold, Ron Mastrogiuseppe
Plain type, Don Spalding Indented plain, Bill Donati
Where did you grow up and how did your educational background lead you into the National Park Service?
I grew up in Seattle, Washington, first generation American from a family that came from Canada, Scotland, and Ireland. I had a little different background then some of us I guess. In WWII, I was a pilot and after that was over, I went back to school. I had just two years of high school when the war started. Although I went back to college, I never really did complete high school. I went on and got a bachelor of science degree in biology. Went to two school: the University of Arizona, and what is called Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. I’ve done graduate work at the University of Montana and American University in Washington, D.C.
What were your graduate classes?
Public administration.
Okay.
As to what brought me into the Park Service, I was an employee of several newspapers one of which was the Republican Gazette in Phoenix. Somebody suggested that I write an article on one of the National Parks. I wasn’t a writer at the time and I still don’t consider myself one. There were a lot of park areas in Arizona. So I started writing and all of a sudden I was writing about all of them. These articles were picked up by the Associated Press and United Press all over the country. I had a call from one of the Superintendents, Tom Whitecraft at Petrified Forest with a seasonal job offer. Meantime, I actually quite the newspaper and started back to college, this was in ’45.
Oh, in ‘’45?
1945. They wanted me to continue the articles, so I did in finished that series and started my college education. I went to work for Petrified Forest as a seasonal naturalist, SP-4, I think it was in those days, sub-professional.
