6th National Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth

December 9, 1951 - January 7, 1964

Conrad L. Wirth

Trained as a landscape architect and previously employed by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Conrad L. Wirth joined the NPS as an assistant director in 1931. With the coming of the New Deal he supervised the service's Civilian Conservation Corps program in the state parks. His administrative ability marked him to succeed Demaray, whom he served as associate director before advancing to the top job in December 1951. Wirth's crowning achievement was Mission 66, a 10-year, billion-dollar program to upgrade park facilities and services by the 50th anniversary of the NPS in 1966. After the 1961 change of administrations Wirth fell out of favor with Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and departed in early 1964. He died in 1993.