2018 Harry Yount National Park Ranger Award

In the tradition of Harry Yount, the National Park Service honors rangers who have the skills to perform a wide scope of ranger duties protecting resources and serving visitors. Congratulations to the 2018 recipient of the Harry Yount National Park Ranger Award!

Jack J. Hoeflich

NPS Photo

Jack Hoeflich, Park Ranger

Yosemite National Park, California

Park Ranger Jack J. Hoeflich from Yosemite National Park is the recipient of the 2018 National Harry Yount Award. His incredible intellect, physical fitness, stamina, climbing prowess, and passion for helping others is a perfect fit for the unique challenges of providing assistance to visitors in Yosemite’s rugged landscape.

Hoeflich’s ranger journey began in Yosemite in 1999 when he left a day job designing computer chips in Silicon Valley to fulfill his passion for exploration and adventure. With his advanced climbing skills, he soon became a valued member of the park’s elite search and rescue team, responding to injured or lost hikers, climbing accidents and swift water rescues. In 2001, he became a law enforcement officer in the park. Since that time, he has participated in and led some of the most challenging and time critical rescue incidents undertaken by the National Park Service. He received a Valor Award for his heroic actions while rescuing a gravely injured climber from the face of El Capitan in 2007.

Hoeflich is trained in emergency medicine, technical rescue, law enforcement, structural firefighting, wildland firefighting, technical rock rescue, helicopter and swift water rescue, horse patrol, and many other ranger disciplines. He helped to implement a preventive search and rescue program, developed a day use permit system for Half Dome in response to the growing emergency incidents, and worked tirelessly on the Yosemite Bear Council to protect the park’s bears.

Since 2012, Hoeflich has served as the Valley District Ranger. He is a consummate professional and endeavors to be the best at whatever he does, maintaining his high level of proficiency even as he has assumed additional responsibilities in park leadership and incident management. He finds solutions for problems often seen as too complex, challenging, or difficult to handle. He is the ranger who other rangers look at and wonder how he became so good at so many things. This ranger, coach, instructor, mentor, and supervisor has mastered the art and science of rangering and personifies the ideals of Harry Yount.