Jefferson National Expansion Administrative History

Meet Jerry Schober

The overriding influence on Jefferson National Expansion Memorial during the 1980s and early '90s was its superintendent, Jerry Schober. This administrative history is sprinkled with quotes taken from oral history interviews with Mr. Schober regarding his tenure at JEFF. Jerry Schober is easy to talk to and loves to tell a good story; he has many to tell about his tenure at the Gateway Arch. Here, by way of introduction, is a brief personal history in his own words, which begins with the strong influence of George B. Hartzog, Jr., Superintendent of JEFF in the early 1960s and later director of the National Park Service:

George, [4] number one, was a risk taker. I really did not meet him until he was director of the Park Service, but one of the things that I was impressed with was that he had a tremendous farsightedness, an ability to look at a total situation and simplify it. One of the biggest things I remember, as a young manager, was any time anybody said: "well this is not the way we do it, you can't do this," and we found there was no regulation that said you couldn't do it, it was like the individual says: "They say." Who is they? If you couldn't show [George] a regulation that said you had to do it a certain way, then he insisted you use a common sense approach. . . .

When I first came into the Park Service I probably came in for the same reason many individuals did, and that was to find some big rural park where you could be out with nature and tell the people about it, even though I was a historian. There were so many stories that you could tell. Man's impact is on everything. And then as I got put into areas that were urban, that's the last place I wanted to go to.

I was working at Shiloh, and we used to have the rangers come over from the Natchez Trace for an orientation trip. And one day I was talking to a ranger, and I said "I'll tell you right now, I'm pretty open. I'll take any job in the Park Service with the exception [of] Administrative Assistant or Officer. I'll go anywhere but Washington, D.C.. And that is not limiting me. It means I will work seven days a week, I'll do anything." And, so help me, it's like the Good Lord said "I am going to test you." Two days later I got a call from a fellow I greatly admired during that period, George Olin. And he said, "I want you to come to Washington, D.C. . . . and you will have about 160 employees, all the monuments, memorials, Ford's Theatre, and the House Where Lincoln Died. It's going to be marvelous and we are reorganizing from the ground up."

"From the ground up, we are reorganizing?"

"Yeah."

"How about from the top down?"

"No, up."

"Well, George, you know, I tried one time pushing a chain up a hill and I did not have a great deal of success. But, hey what the heck, let's try it one more time."

I could not believe I took him up on this offer. My stay in Washington was during the Poor People's March [in 1968] and their tent city was erected on my area between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. It was also during the rioting and burning of the district. It was here that I realized that the urban experience allowed you to have personal contact with more people than you could ever have in a rural park, and I saw where really and truly when we say parks are for people there are several things we forget. Employees are people, but sometimes we forget about them, too.

By the time I got to Gettysburg, [it] was another urban park. Three million visits. And I am right in the middle of it again. And from Gettysburg straight to Golden Gate National Recreational Area, which claims fifteen million [visitors] or something like that; that's because everybody has to use our roads. But the idea was we built a park through public input. I personally did about two hundred and fifty after-hour public meetings over a four-year period. I was able to see every kind of individual you can name. But all of this brought something home to me. The action isn't out in Yellowstone — you just take [the visitors] as your guests. Here [at JEFF], you can have them every day and you can make an impact on their lives. And the real test, and why it is so good you're here and not in Yellowstone, is that you only have a hundred acres to welcome 2.7 million people. And you can touch every one of those people in a very personal way.

Coming into St. Louis my initial first trip was, I think, December 28, 1978, and I remember it looked like a pasture out where the Arch was. They had the huge fescue grass, but at least it was green out there. And they talked about some renewed landscaping. . . . I said, I am not going to bring my family into St. Louis now (they'd had two of the most severe winters ever recorded here). To come from San Francisco with my family and get here about the time some of the potholes were melting out and the snow was turning dark [didn't seem right]. I always want the setting to be such that the family loves it as much as I do, and so far we had batted 100 percent. I did not want St. Louis to be any different. My wife Kathy and I both liked the town from past visits. So I said I'll come the last of February. The Regional Director at first said "But I really sort of want . . ." but then finally said O.K. And so we settled on it. And when I came in about the last two days of February [1979], I could not believe it. Over next to the Arch was no green grass, it was all dug up, trenches everywhere. And I found out that the first phase of the landscaping was going in. . . .

My deputy at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area at that time was an individual by the name of Jack Wheat, a person that I respected very much, and when he heard that I had the opportunity to come to St. Louis, that is the first time I had seen his eyes sparkle like that, and he ran to his desk and he pulled out one of his bottom drawers and began to show me things that had been done while he was in St. Louis. And he said, "Oh boy, this would be a great spot for you to go to."

So, when I got here my expectations were high. I don't think I realized the potential having come from Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which was at that time, may still be, the largest urban recreational park in the world. . . You have two ways to view your operation. One, the park is either a big fort and you have a moat around it and you can pull the drawbridge up every night. [My thought] is, that way you're not doing anything for them [the people of the city], why should they do anything for you? . . .

If we do more things to help tourism in the city, they want to do more things to help us. From time to time we'll get funding through the city, or we will get help through the city. If not, we will get help through the friends that we have made, that are connected with corporations. The whole process of being a manager is weighing the individual you are working with. What is it that needs to receive the high visibility? Is it the corporation or the individual? In return for the high visibility you will receive support and funding. All of a sudden the service has coined a new term, "partnerships," but we've been in that business for a heck of a long time. . .

Now, I know that [Deputy Director of the NPS] Herb Cables has sent a lot of his people out here to observe operations at JEFF. We are short on acres but high on people. Why would they be coming out here to look, if there wasn't something a little different than other park operations? [5]

Jerry Schober announced his retirement from the National Park Service in July 1991. Schober took a position as director of the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, where he managed 62 parks and recreation sites. "I've enjoyed every place I've been," said Schober, "but there is a certain charm to St. Louis." [6]

Jerry Schober put his imprint on Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. He described George Hartzog as a "risk taker," but the same tag could be applied to Schober himself. It was the enthusiastic and daring attitude of Jerry Schober which made Jefferson National Expansion Memorial a unique and special place during the 1980s. This administrative history is dedicated to Jerry Schober, and to all park managers who have the vision, the courage, the dedication and the integrity to dare great things.

A Note on the Text

The story of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, 1980-1991, has been told in the following administrative history in thirteen chapters, which are arranged in a non-traditional fashion for this type of document. The current arrangement was dictated by the many public-private partnerships in which JEFF has been involved, which might prove confusing for a reader unfamiliar with the park. This arrangement follows the flow of funds from one project to another, leading into the management of the major park divisions, the birth of new parks such as the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, and to JEFF's future plans on the east side of the Mississippi River. A detailed table of contents and index are provided for readers seeking specific information.