Russell E. Dickenson Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0085
The Russell E. Dickenson Papers contains agendas, appointment books, articles, brochures, charts, clippings, correspondence, directories, government documents, handbooks, job descriptions, legal documents, memoranda, minutes, newsletters, pamphlets, press releases, publications, reports, resolutions, resumes, speeches, and statements. Also included in the collection are photographs, and oversize materials.
Materials in this collection cover the period 1923 to 2008. The bulk of the materials dates from 1970 to 1989 and documents Russell Dickenson's long career with the National Park Service.
The Dickenson Papers are divided into six series representing different phases of his career: Pre-1968, National Capital Region and National Capital Parks, Deputy Director to the Director of the National Park Service, Regional Director of the Pacific Northwest Region, Director of the National Park Service, and Post-National Park Service. The series are arranged alphabetically by folder title, and chronologically within each folder. This collection emphasizes Dickenson's tenure as Deputy Director to the Director of the National Park Service, the Regional Director of the Pacific Northwest Region, and Director of the National Park Service. Also included are materials relating to his three different positions associated with the National Capital Region and National Capital Parks. Materials pertaining to his Service career before 1968 and his post-National Park Service work as a member of the National Park System Advisory Board can be found here as well.
Correspondence filed in the collection include a wide spectrum of colleagues and associates who wrote warm, personal notes expressing appreciation for guiding the National Park Service through difficult and exciting times and for restoring morale of park employees. Copies of personal correspondence indicate Dickenson may have kept the originals. A small amount of personal and poignant correspondence between himself and Horace M. Albright, the second Director of the National Park Service, can be found in the collection.
Issues addressed during Dickenson's tenure as Director of the National Park Service include land condemnation and the National Inholders Association; politicizing personnel actions; Alaska legislation and conservation; Ellis Island and Statute of Liberty plans; procedures for realignment; transfer of WASO (washington Support Office) and Regional positions and funds to field units; James G. Watt, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; trail biking; Oxon Cove landfill; DDT; Marine Corps use of park land; and Colorado River Management Plan.
Within each of the series is a description of Dickenson's responsibilities and accomplishments as well as specific items in the series.
Correspondents include Horace M. Albright; Cecil D. Andrus; Rosalynn Carter; William P. Clark, Jr.; Greer Garson (Fogelson); U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater; Donald Hodel; Lady Bird Johnson; Melvin R. Laird; Frank Masland; and James G. Watt.
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection beyond those of Special Collections.
Russell Errett Dickenson was born on April 12, 1923 to John Errett and Lexie Davis Dickenson in Melissa, Texas. He attended North Texas State College (1940-1942), Louisiana Polytechnic Institute (1944) and Arizona State College Northern Arizona University (1943, 1946-1947) where he received a bachelor's degree in economics and commerce from Arizona State College in 1947. From 1942 to 1946 he served with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, attaining the rank of Captain. Dickenson began his career with the National Park Service as a park ranger at the Grand Canyon National Park in 1946. During the next twenty years, Dickenson moved up through the ranks of the National Park Service: Chief Ranger, Platt National Park, 1953-1955; Superintendent, Chiricahua National Monument, 1955; Chief Ranger, Big Bend National Park, 1955-1957; Assistant Chief Ranger, Glacier National Park, 1957; Chief Ranger, Grand Teton National Park, 1957-1963; Assistant Superintendent, Zion National Park, 1963-1965; and Superintendent, Flaming Gorge National Park, 1965-1966. In 1966 he became the Regional Chief of the Division of Resources Management and Visitor Protection in the Midwest Region Office in Omaha, Nebraska. Dickenson was transferred to the National Park Service's Washington Office to serve as the Chief of New Area Studies and Master Planning in 1967. From 1968 to 1969 he served as the Associate Regional Director of the National Capital Parks Region, Washington, D.C., and was promoted to a newly created position, General Superintendent, of that region in September 1969. Dickenson became the Regional Director of the National Capital Parks Region in 1970. In 1973 he became the Deputy Director of the National Park Service, and in 1975 he moved to Seattle, Washington, to serve as the Regional Director of the Pacific Northwest Region. On May 15, 1980 Dickenson was appointed the eleventh Director of the National Park Service, becoming the first director to have worked his way up from park ranger to head the organization. He retired from the National Park Service on March 3, 1985.
After his retirement from the National Park Service, Dickenson worked as an affiliated professor in the College of Forestry Resources at the University of Washington from 1986 to 1992. He was president of the Washington National Parks Fund from 1985 to 1998. Dickenson also co-authored a book with Horace Albright titled National Park Service: The Story Behind the Scenery which was published in 1987. In addition, he served on the National Park Advisory Board (1985-1989), and was a member of numerous board of directors, including the North Cascade Institute (1986-1991), the Student Conservation Association (1985-1991), Tourmobile, Inc. (1986-2002), the Eastern National Parks and Monument Association (1990-2004), and the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (1985-1992).
Dickenson received several awards for his long, distinguished career with the National Park Service and the conservation movement. Some of the awards include: the U.S. Department of the Interior's Meritorious Service Award, 1971; The Cornelius Amory Pugsley Gold Medal Award, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1974; The Meritorious Service Medal, The Sons of the American Revolution, 1981; the National Society for Park Resources Award for Excellence, 1981; and The George Washington Medal, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, 1982. Northern Arizona University awarded Dickenson the honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1982, four years after giving him its Distinguished Alumni Award. Dickenson became the first American to receive the Golden Flower of Rheydt Award from Germany in 1983 for his contributions made in preserving the environment on a national and international level.
Russell E. Dickenson married Maxine in 1947. They had two children: Vivian Lee and Russell Steven. He died on February 19, 2008 in Bellevue, Washington.
9 Cubic Feet (26 boxes, 16 photographs, 13 oversize photographs, 1 slide, and 1 oversize folder)
English
This collection consists of the personal papers of Russell E. Dickenson which documents his long career as an employee of the National Park Service, especially his tenure as the Director of the National Park Service from May 1980 to March 1985, as well as his career after he retired from the Service.
Russell E. Dickenson donated his papers to Clemson University in October 1985. The collection consists of the accessions 85-117 and 89-245.
The collection was originally processed and the first register prepared by Berniece Holt in 1987. Processing of additional materials and an updated register was done by Laurie Varenhorst in 2008.
The conversion of this finding aid to Encoded Archival Description format was made possible with a grant from the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2009-2010. The finding aid was prepared for encoding by Jen Bingham.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository