Did you coordinate any of the wilderness hearings? I know Crater Lake had some in early 1971.
My role there was to arrange for an official recorder, and to see that public notices got published in local papers. I had to make copies of these and see that they were a part of the record. I also arranged with the hearings officer to make sure that he was available and that the meetings were on his calendar, along with dates and places. I was kind of behind the scenes individual, one who collected the record and had it put together, including the preparation of the final recommendations that were sent to Congress.
Did you attend the hearings?
Oh, yes. I attended all of them. At that time I think there were two designated hearing officers for the NPS. I knew both of those gentlemen very well. One was John Preston, who had been the superintendent at Yosemite. At our meeting for Mount Rainier, John Preston served as hearing officer. This was a goodwill gesture to John because he was formerly superintendent at Mount Rainer. He also served at the North Cascades and Crater Lake hearing when we went there. Of course, the Regional Director, John Rutter or the Deputy Regional Director, Ben Gale, also sat at the head table and officially presided by introducing the hearing officer. When we went up to Alaska for hearings on the wilderness proposal for Glacier Bay and Katmai, meetings were held in Juneau and Anchorage. The other gentleman, John Davis, served as the hearing officer of those (10). We didn’t have hearing on Mount McKinley and Denali National Park while I was there. That came later.
