A Ranger Again

Ranger Bob Widger with the Adams Memorial, 1972

Courtesy of Bob Widger

Bob Widger is a registered nurse, outdoor enthusiast, husband, father, and grandfather, but being a park ranger has punctuated every chapter of his life. An ethos of service is constant for Widger - just like the pull of Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.

In 1972, Widger first reported to work at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site (now Historical Park). New Hampshire's only national park unit was still in its infancy. Visitors paid the fifty-cent entry free at the front door of the historic house, Aspet. Inside a "charwoman" kept the home clean and rangers ate lunch where servants had once prepared food for the Saint-Gaudens family. Only one large bronze sculpture had been installed on the grounds (the Adams Memorial), but the buildings and landscapes echoed with the not-to-distant history of the Cornish Colony. Even the family of Bev, the woman he had recently married, had worked for members of the Cornish Colony including Charles Beaman at Blow-Me-Down Farm.

Saint-Gaudens NHP staff including Bob Widger (upper left), early 1990s.

NPS

The love of history and the act of sharing it in Cornish inspired Widger to continue a career in federal service. After two seasons as an interpretive ranger at Saint-Gaudens NHS, he brought his skills to Boston National Historical Park and Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. Widger looks back fondly of his time welcoming visitors inside the home of President Theodore Roosevelt or climbing the stairs of the Bunker Hill Monument, but life as a park ranger wasn't always easy. After a decade of permanent service from 1977 to 1987, he saw continually uprooting his life to new places as the only way to continue a career with the National Park Service. Realizing the challenges of an itinerant lifestyle, he (temporarily) hung up his flat hat and used his passion for history as a classroom teacher.

In the early 1990s, the young family returned to his wife's hometown of Plainfield, New Hampshire. The hills of neighboring Cornish beckoned and Widger once again entered the world of Augustus Saint-Gaudens as a seasonal park ranger in 1991, 1992, and 1995. The park had grown in his time away, but the power of its stories had not changed. "What you see is what you get," said Widger recently about the realism of Saint-Gaudens’ work. Then, and now, Widger revels in the artist's timeless storytelling power.

Ranger Bob Widger after swearing his grandchildren in as Junior Rangers

Courtesy of Bob Widger

Eventually, Widger traded his green wool trousers for medical scrubs and the stability of a career in nursing. His interest in the field began with a First Aid class organized through the National Park Service and led to a 27-year career in a different type of care. Even though Widger was now outside the internal workings of a national park, his connection to its history, land, and surrounding community did not waiver. No longer a newcomer arriving for a seasonal job, Widger visited the park with his family as an unequivocal member of the tight-knit local community. He served on the local Cornish Rescue Squad as a volunteer EMT for 25 years and worked as a ski patroller for even longer. Widger also began volunteering with the Green Mountain Club to help care for the region's public lands and supported the tireless, ongoing work of his wife, Bev Widger, to preserve a local stage set designed by Cornish Colony artist Maxfield Parrish.

Even with time, the pull of the park never lost grip of Bob Widger. When he retired from nursing in 2020, he repurposed an old ranger shirt into a one-of-a-kind volunteer uniform, brushed up on his facts, and delivered a weekly Civil War-themed tour of the park. Leading a group through the historic grounds reminded Widger of the joy he first felt nearly fifty years before.

In a homecoming of sorts, Widger returned as a part-time seasonal ranger in May 2023 at the place where his journey began. He says that being a ranger "was a bucket list thing." Perhaps nostalgia influenced his decision to return again, but Widger has continually demonstrated that a life of service need not move in a straight line. Though his path may have meandered, it continues to turn back towards Saint-Gaudens NHP. This traditionalist may chuckle about the memories of the past, but his impact touches the people of now in a place so close to his heart.

Bob Widger completed his latest season as an interpretive ranger at Saint-Gaudens NHP on November 2, 2023.



This article was written and edited by Jenna Wiltrout and Newton Rose. Do you have a special connection to Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park? Share #YourParkStory with us by emailing [e-mail].