Lemuel Alonzo ("Lon") Garrison was born in Pella, Iowa, on October 1, 1903, the son of Lemuel Addison Garrison, a minister, and his wife, Mary Firth Garrison. His father was president of Central University of Iowa, Pella, Iowa, and Grand Island College, Nebraska, which were both Baptist schools, and later was pastor of the Baptist Church in Ogden, Utah. During his youth, Garrison lived in Nebraska, Idaho and Utah where he graduated from Ogden High School in 1922. Calling himself a "scholastic tramp," Garrison attended Des Moines University, the University of California at Los Angeles, Redlands University and San Jose State College. He graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology in 1932.

During the period when he was getting his education, Garrison worked in Alaska from 1929-1931 as a teacher at Haines High School during the winters and as a fire fighter for the U.S. Forest Service in the Chugach National Forest in the summers. It was in Alaska where he met and married Inger Wilhelmine Larsen, a native of Gresvig, Norway, on March 20, 1930. They had three children: Lars Addison, born 1932; Erik Lemuel, born 1939, died 1952; and Mary Karen, born 1940.

After graduating from Stanford University, Garrison entered the National Park Service on July 4, 1932, as a seasonal park ranger at Sequoia National Park, California. He became a permanent ranger in 1935, and was assigned to Yosemite National Park, California. In November 1939 Garrison became the first Superintendent of the Hopewell Village National Historic Site in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. Two years later, he was assigned as Assistant Chief of Information at the National Park Service's Washington headquarters. He held this position until June 1942 when he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Glacier National Park in Montana. After a four-year period at Glacier, Garrison became Assistant Superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona in February 1946. In November 1952 he was transferred to Big Bend National Park in Texas as its second Superintendent. Garrison returned to Washington, D.C., in January 1955, to serve as the Park Service's first Chief of Conservation and Protection. During this time he concurrently served as the Chairman of the National Park Service MISSION 66 Steering Committee. He was appointed as Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park in November 1956. From there Garrison went on to be the Park Service's Regional Director in the Midwest Region, Omaha, Nebraska (1964-1966), and the Northeast Region in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1966-1970). He served as the Director of the Horace M. Albright Training Center at Grand Canyon, Arizona, from 1970 until his retirement from the National Park Service on January 19, 1973.

Besides his work for the National Park Service, Garrison was a guest lecturer in many university Park and Recreation Departments and training programs. Some of the universities he visited include Colorado State University, University of Montana, Utah State University, Iowa State University, New York State University, Ohio State University and University of Minnesota. He was a visiting professor at Oregon State University in 1972 and 1973. From 1973-1984 he was a guest lecturer and visiting professor in the Recreation and Parks Department at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Garrison was also a successful free lance writer who had written more than two hundred fifty articles on the outdoors, parks, fishing, youth activities, travel, children, tall stories, and humor. His articles appeared in publications such as Outdoor Life, Journal of Forestry, and Parks and Recreation Magazine. One of his writings was a booklet, The Mather-Albright Years, which was published by the Big Bend Natural History Association, Inc. During his spare time while working as a visiting professor at Texas A&M University, Garrison wrote a book, The Making of a Ranger: Forty Years with the National Parks, which he characterized as an "adventure autobiography" concerning his experiences as a National Park Service employee. The book was published in 1983.

Garrison received a number of awards for his dedication and service to the parks. Some of these awards include: Department of the Interior, Meritorious Service, 1956; Department of the Interior, Distinguished Service Award, 1961; American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society's Pugsley Gold Medal Award, 1970; the National Conference on State Parks Award of Excellence, 1972; and the National Society for Park Resources Distinguished Service Award, 1976.

Inger Larsen Garrison was teaching in a small, isolated school for children in the United States Territory of Alaska when she met Lon Garrison. Her father, a sailor and steel-worker, had brought his family to Alaska some years before. She had attended Eastern Washington State University before teaching. During their early years of moving around for the National Park Service, Mrs. Garrison developed an interest in studying the cultures of the people, generally the Native Americans, who lived near the parks where her husband worked. In time she developed so much knowledge about Indian art that she became a cultural consultant organizing and arranging numerous shows and exhibits for groups such as the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Mrs. Garrison also served as consultant on cultural affairs for the National Park Service's "Living History," or cultural interpretation, program. She wrote a chapter on "Living Interpretation," in Interpreting the Environment, a college textbook which was assembled by Dr. Grant Sharpe of the University of Washington in 1976. Inger Garrison served as one of 40 people from across the United States chosen to form the Park, Arts and Leisure Panel, cosponsored by the National Park Service and the National Recreation and Parks Association, which led a pilot project concerning the arts and parks on all governmental levels. She was a charter member of the World Craft Council and involved in the National Park Service Women's Organization. She was an adjunct professor of Arts at Northern Arizona University and lectured on Indian Art and Pottery and firing for the Department of Archaeology at Texas A&M University. In addition, she was an accomplished potter and sculptor.

With resourcefulness, a deep intellectual perception, dedicated leadership and a deep love and respect for nature, Lemuel Garrison helped forge a philosophy of outdoor recreation management that became a model for the nation. Inger Garrison made her own contributions to the parks through her passionate interest and active involvement in the culture and the arts. Lon Garrison passed away on February 14, 1984 in College Station, Texas, and about a year later, Inger Larsen Garrison died on January 21, 1985. They are buried at Grand Canyon National Park. The biographical information on the Garrisons came from material found within the collection.