Larry Frederick, chief of interpretation and education at Rocky Mountain National Park, will retire on January 3rd.

Larry studied park and recreation management in the College of Forestry at Colorado State University, graduating in June, 1972.  Prior to graduation, he spent a summer as a member of the Pike National Forest Hot Shot fire crew.  In January, 1972, he began volunteering weekends at Rocky Mountain NP in the division of interpretation, working at Hidden Valley Ski Area and the main visitor center.

In the summer of 1972, he returned for a second season to the Pike Hot Shots and then took a winter seasonal position with Colorado Division of Parks.  In the spring of 1973 he started as a seasonal park interpreter at Wind Cave National Park.  That winter he worked as a winter seasonal, then volunteer, back at Rocky before returning to Wind Cave in the spring of 1974.

In June, 1972, he took a permanent outdoor recreation planner position with the Bureau of Land Management in Ely, Nevada.  He was the first full-time recreation planner on the district.  One of his tasks was to prepare 120 miles of the Pony Express Trail for visitation as a Bicentennial project.  Larry left the BLM in the summer 1976 to return to the NPS at Rocky as a permanent audiovisual technician.  By September, he had landed the assistant chief of interpretation position at Wind Cave NP, a newly created position.

He met his wife, Jeri Kizer, at Wind Cave and they married in May, 1981, just prior to transferring to Grand Canyon NP, where he served as the South Rim Visitor Center supervisor.  He was very active in the emergency services program at the park and worked his way up to being a nationally certified paramedic.  Their son, Ryan, was born in Flagstaff.

In 1986, Larry and his family transferred to Olympic NP, where he served as the district interpreter in the East District.  Their daughter, Annie, was born in Port Angeles.

In 1988, Larry and his family moved on to the chief of interpretation position at Canyonlands NP.  He oversaw major changes in operations there, including the creation of the Moab Information Center and the Needles Visitor Center.

In 1996, they moved to Glacier NP, where Larry served as the chief of interpretation.  He organized the bi-national event to celebrate the status of Waterton-Glacier national parks becoming a joint World Heritage Site.

In 2001, they transferred to Rocky Mountain NP, where Larry served as the chief of interpretation and education, laying groundwork for the park’s 100th anniversary in 2015.

With training from Rick Gale’s Type I NPS Incident Management Team in 1993, Larry served as an information officer on Intermountain Region’s Type II IMT until his retirement.  Assignments such as the 2002 Winter Olympics, the opening of Brown vs. Board of Education (Presidential visit), the Cerro Grande Fire, 2009 Presidential Inauguration, and many other assignments, were highlights of his career.

Larry served as the acting superintendent at Grant Kohrs Ranch NHS over 1999/2000 and as the acting deputy superintendent at Glen Canyon in 2009.

Throughout Larry’s career he has been passionate about the mission of the NPS, the value of interpretation and the desire to be an all-around park ranger.

A retirement celebration will be held on January 26th in Estes Park, CO at the Park Village Playhouse starting at 5:30pm. Please email Karen_Brna@nps.gov or call 970-586-1201 for additional details or if you plan on attending (RSVP by January 11th).

If you can’t make it to the celebration, but would like to share a short video (up to 30 seconds), a story or pictures about your experiences with Larry during his career or to send your congratulations, please upload them to: https://docs.google.com/a/doi.gov/folder/d/0B1h54o60zS31UUs1MGw4TUNaZ3c/edit  by January 16th.

Larry and his wife, Jeri, plan to remain in Estes Park and can be reached at ljfred@beyondbb.com or 1850 Ranch Circle, Estes Park, CO 8517, 970-577-0859.