7th National Park Service Director George B. Hartzog, Jr.

January 9, 1964 - December 31, 1972

George B. Hartzog, Jr.

George B. Hartzog, Jr., joined the NPS as an attorney in 1946. He moved to field assignments at Great Smoky Mountains and Rocky Mountains national parks, then made his name advancing the Gateway Arch project as superintendent of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial from 1959 to 1962. After briefly leaving the service he returned as associate director in 1963 with the promise of succeeding Conrad Wirth in January 1964. A dynamic, politically astute manager, Hartzog welcomed some 70 new areas to the national park system during his nine-year tenure as director and greatly enlarged the service's role in urban recreation, historic preservation, interpretation, and environmental education. Closely identified with the expansionist policies of the Johnson-Udall administration, Hartzog was less appreciated by its successor and was dismissed in late 1972. George Hartzog died in 2008.