Gary Everhardt Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0344
Material in the Papers was created as a result of Everhardt’s career in the National Park Service as Assistant Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, Superintendent of Grand Teton National Park, National Park Service Director, and particularly as the Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The files reflect the day-to-day management concerns relating to running the National Park Service or individual parks. Topics reflected in these files include budgeting; concessionaires and their relationship with the parks; Congress and its relationship to the parks; construction and maintenance projects; environmental conditions in the parks; housing; land acquisition, access, and use, including vista protection; management of both land and park staff; planning; and public use and interpretation, including economic and other impacts on the parks and surrounding areas. The collection also contains a small amount of personal correspondence with current and former co-workers and friends. Items in the collection date from 1936 to 2005 with most of the material dating from 1972-1999. The collection is arranged into five series: Pre-Director, Director of the National Park Service, Blue Ridge Parkway, Photographs, and Artifacts.
This collection is open to the public without restriction. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material.
Gary Eugene Everhardt was born on July 8, 1934 in Lenoir, North Carolina. He attended North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (now North Carolina State University) and graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He married Nancy Poovey and they had two children: Karen, in 1959, and Phil, in 1963.
Everhardt started working with the National Park Service (NPS) as a student engineer surveying lands in the Blue Ridge area near Grandfather Mountain. After graduation the NPS offered Everhardt a job as a civil engineer. After serving 6 months in the Army in 1958, Everhardt continued with his civil engineering job until he was promoted to general engineer in the Southeast Regional Office, Richmond, Virginia in 1962. He was then promoted to Regional Coordinator of Engineering in 1964 and transferred to the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1966 with a similar position as the Regional Chief of Maintenance.
In 1969, Everhardt moved to Yellowstone National Park to serve as the Assistant Superintendent. He stayed there until 1972, when he was promoted to be the Superintendent of Grand Teton National Park. It was at Grand Teton where he was awarded the Department of the Interior’s Meritorious Service Award for planning and executing a global conference for national parks.
Everhardt was nominated out of the NPS ranks and became the ninth Director of the National Park Service in January 1975 under President Gerald Ford. As Director, Everhardt oversaw the park-wide celebration of the national Bicentennial and doubled the acreage of lands belonging to the NPS. Throughout his directorship, he promoted land preservation and conservation. In May of 1977, he stepped down from the Directorship and served briefly as the Special Assistant to the National Park Service Director until he started work as the Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway in October 1977.
As the fifth Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Everhardt revived construction and oversaw the completion of the parkway with the construction of the Linn Cove Viaduct around Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. He sought to improve interpretative programming, develop trails and attract visitors to the Parkway. Everhardt supervised and supported the construction of the Asheville Folk Art Center, Parkway Headquarters and the Blue Ridge Music Center.
For his service as the Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Gary E. Everhardt was awarded the Department of the Interior’s highest honor on April 24, 1985: the Distinguished Service Award. In 1990, he was awarded the Cornelius Amory Pugsley National Medal Award for his dedication to park conservation. The Blue Ridge Parkway Headquarters in North Carolina is named after him. Everhardt retired in 2000 to Arden, North Carolina.
16.85 Cubic Feet (34.5 document boxes, 3 oversize boxes, one audio disc, and eight artifacts)
English
Gary Everhardt was an engineer with the National Park Service who became Assistant Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park in 1969 and Superintendent of Grand Teton National Park in 1972. In 1975 he became the ninth Director of the National Park Service where he oversaw the park-wide celebration of the national Bicentennial and doubled the acreage of lands belonging to the Service, promoting land conservation and preservation. In 1977 he resigned from the directorship and became Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway. During his tenure as Superintendent he oversaw the completion of the parkway with the construction of the Linn Cove Viaduct around Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. Everhardt supervised and supported the construction of the Asheville Folk Art Center, Parkway Headquarters and the Blue Ridge Music Center. The fiftieth anniversary of the Parkway and its formal dedication were celebrated while he was Superintendent. He retired in 2000.
The collection contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, photographs, reports, speeches, and other materials relating to Everhardt’s career in the National Park Service, particularly his service as the Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The collection is arranged into five series: Pre-Director, Director of the National Park Service, Blue Ridge Parkway, Photographs, and Artifacts. The series are arranged alphabetically by folder title with the exception of the Artifacts series, which is arranged by object number.
Gary Everhardt in 2005, 2008 and 2011 as accessions 05-100, 08-105, 11-082, and 11-101.
Collection processed 2010-2013 and finding aid written by James Cross in 2014-2015.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository