Conrad L. Wirth; Directed National Park Service

Conrad L. Wirth, 93, longest-serving director of the National Park Service. The son of a park administrator, Wirth was born in a city park in Hartford, Conn., and brought up in another one in Minneapolis. He studied landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts and was in private practice for five years as a landscaper and town planner, and then worked for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Washington. He joined the National Park Service in 1931 as assistant director in charge of the nation’s Civilian Conservation Corps. As director of the park service from 1951 to 1964, Wirth developed a 10-year “Mission 66” program to spruce up the national parks for the service’s 50th anniversary in 1966. Wirth served as the first chairman of New York State Historic Trust and executive director of the Hudson Valley Commission. He was the first recipient of the Wirth Environmental Award named in honor of him and his father by the National Park Foundation. On Sunday in Williamstown, Mass.