You said that you had chosen the park ranger option. Were you already predisposed to working in parks from visits as a child?
Great question! I was raised in San Francisco, and had Golden Gate Park as my front yard and Sutro’s Forest as my back yard. I had a grandfather, who would tour the national parks and take his eight millimeter camera and shoe pictures of Yellowstone and Carlsbad Caverns. My predisposition came from my Grandfather’s enthusiasm for the national parks. My grandfather would often compare Yellowstone with Yosemite. He said that in Yosemite the scenery is always the same, but in Yellowstone you always had changes. So his preference was Yellowstone over Yosemite. As a teenager my parents would vacation in Yosemite. I really enjoyed that, as well as spending my summer in a cabin in the California Redwoods.
Where in the redwoods?
Near Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The cabin was right across from the park. I spent all the summers in my teenage years under the canopy of the redwoods and hiking in the forest.
I was a member of the San Jose State track team and did a lot of running in the redwoods forest. That is what led to the opportunity to be a park aid at Henry Cowell. In some ways I was a bit apprehensive about turning down the job of park aid in the area that I knew well, since I knew nothing about Crater Lake. The pictures didn’t do in justice, I wasn’t too impressed. Then I saw Gordon Edwards and said, “Dr. Edwards should I accept this job?” He said, “This will be a life altering experience, you’ll love the job. Forget the pay. Get out there and get the experience, and it will stay with you the rest of your life.” He was right.
I came on duty here while I was still attending San Jose State. I had just finished my junior year. It turned out that the position was mad possible by Dick Brown, who had just made the transition from chief naturalist, to a research biologist. My recollection is that Dick did not have a Ph.D. but had all the mental faculties of someone well beyond Ph.D. status (2). He was very well respected by al his scientific peers.
