The National Park Service (NPS) has selected Greg Dudgeon to serve as the superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park starting July 2021.
After 38 years of service with the NPS, Dudgeon currently serves as an acting deputy regional director, overseeing the management of 15 national parks, preserves, monuments and national historical parks in Alaska.
Dudgeon began volunteering with the NPS in 1983 with a whale biologist photographing humpback whales at Glacier Bay National Park.
He went on to work as a seasonal biological technician, an interpretive ranger and commissioned ranger. In 1996, Dudgeon was selected as the chief ranger for Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. In 1998, he was asked to serve as chief ranger at Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park and Noatak National Preserve.
From 2001 through 2003, Dudgeon was the superintendent of Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments in Utah before returning to Alaska to be the superintendent of Sitka National Historical Park.
During his tenure at Sitka, Dudgeon worked with the Indigenous Tlingit people in observations of several significant historic events, most notably the 200th anniversary of Dawootle Tlein (the “Great Battle”) between Tlingit forebearers and Russian fur traders.
In 2007, Dudgeon became superintendent of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, where he served until taking on his current assignment. Together, the two parks encompass 11 million acres — seven million of which are designated wilderness.
“As a 30-year National Park Service veteran, Greg has extensive experience caring for historic and cultural resources in parks and managing them in balance with natural resource conservation and public use,” said acting NPS Regional Director Cindy Orlando in a news release. “Greg’s ability to work collaboratively with partners and communities to protect park resources make him a great fit for this position.”
Mount Rainier National Park was established in 1899 as the nation’s fifth national park. The park contains an archeological record demonstrating more than 9,000 years of human connection to the area. In the contiguous United States, Mount Rainier is the highest volcanic peak (14,410 feet) with the largest glacial system (26 named glaciers).
The news release from the NPS also identified the cultural importance of Mount Rainier to tribes of the Pacific Northwest, including the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the Squaxin Island Tribe and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
“I am grateful for the many remarkable places I’ve experienced and people I’ve worked with over the years because they have helped prepare me for this exceptional opportunity to join the accomplished, professional team at Mount Rainier National Park,” Dudgeon said in the release. “At Mount Rainier, we have the opportunity and privilege to preserve a tapestry of natural, cultural and historic treasures that will inspire people tomorrow just as the park does today.”
Dudgeon was raised in northwest Ohio and southern California. He and his wife Susan, along with retired sled dogs Lucor and Solace (from Denali National Park’s working sled dog kennel), plan to reside in one of Mount Rainier’s gateway communities.
For more information on Mount Rainier, visit www.nps.gov/mora.
