Horace Marden Albright (January 6, 1890 – March 28, 1987) was an American conservationist. Horace Albright was born in 1890 in

Bishop, California Bishop (formerly Bishop Creek) is a city in California, United States. It is the largest populated place and only incorporated city in Inyo County. Bishop is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley, at an elevation of . The city was ...

, the son of George Albright, a miner. He graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1912, and earned a law degree from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. Albright married his college classmate Grace Noble and they had two children. After graduation, he worked for the Department of the Interior in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Albright became a legal assistant to

Stephen Mather Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930) was an American industrialist and conservationist who was the first director of the National Park Service. As president and owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company he became a million ...

when Mather became Assistant Secretary in charge of National Parks, and later assisted Mather when the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

(NPS) was established in 1916. As legal assistant he helped acquire land for several new national parks in the east. When Mather became ill, Albright managed the NPS as acting director. He later served as superintendent of

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

and, for a short time,

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

. On October 18, 1922, he was elected Associate Member of the

Boone and Crockett Club The Boone and Crockett Club is an American nonprofit organization that advocates fair chase hunting in support of habitat conservation. The club is North America's oldest wildlife and habitat conservation organization, founded in the United Sta ...

, a wildlife conservation organization founded by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

and

George Bird Grinnell George Bird Grinnell (September 20, 1849 – April 11, 1938) was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880. ...

, in 1887. On January 12, 1929, Albright succeeded Mather as the second director of the NPS and held the post until August 9, 1933. In 1933 Albright resigned to work for the U.S. Potash Corporation and U.S. Borax and Chemical Corporation, serving variously as director, vice president, and general manager. During this time they lived in New Rochelle, New York. In 1937, his portrait was painted by artist Herbert A. Collins.Biography of Herbert Alexander Collins, by Alfred W. Collins, February 1975, 4 pages typed, in the possession of Collins' great-great grand-daughter, D. Dahl of Tacoma, WA. In 1969, Albright received the National Audubon Society's highest honor, the Audubon Medal. The nation's highest civilian award, the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

, was awarded to Albright by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

on the 64th anniversary of the National Park Service. President Carter announced the award in August 1980, and the medal was presented on December 8 by Assistant Secretary of the Interior Robert L. Herbst, in a ceremony at Van Nuys, California. Albright died in

Van Nuys, California Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, ...

, in 1987. Albright Grove, a grove of old-growth hemlocks and tulip poplars located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was named in Albright's honor. The Albright Training Center at Grand Canyon National Park, the Albright Visitor Center at

, and Albright Peak in

Grand Teton National Park Grand Teton National Park is an American national park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately , the park includes the major peaks of the Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Grand Teton ...

also bear his name.

References

External links

*

''"Oh, Ranger!"'' by Horace M. Albright and Frank J. Taylor (1928, 1929, 1934, 1972)
Whimsical look at managing the National parks
''Creating the National Park Service: The Missing Years'' by Horace M. Albright and Marian Albright Schenck (Univ. of OK Press, 1999)
Memoirs about creating the NPS written with the assistance of Albright's daughter *Albright, Horace M. as told to Robert Cahn; ''The Birth of the National Park Service; The Founding Years, 1913–33''; Howe Brothers, Salt Lake City, Utah; 1985.
Horace M. Albright, Mining Lawyer and Executive
1986 interview, Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley. Accessed 8/16/2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Albright, Horace M. 1890 births 1987 deaths People from Bishop, California Activists from New Rochelle, New York Directors of the National Park Service Georgetown University Law Center alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Sierra Club awardees

References

Further reading

External links