Dwight F. Rettie
RESUME
Education:
B.A., Yale University, Political Science, with honors.
Undergraduate honors essay: "United States Reclamation Policy."
M.A., University of California at Berkeley, Political Science.
Master's thesis: "National Forest Timber Sale Policy."
George Washington University, Washington, D.C., Leadership Training, 1959, Cert.
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., Defense Management Systems Course, 1964, Cert.
Employment:
Visiting Professor of Political Science, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C., August 1999 to May 2001.
Instructor in Political Science, East Carolina University and Carteret Community College, Morehead City, N.C., September 1995 to May 1998.
Lecturer, National Park Service, Horace Albright Training Center, Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. Taught National Park Service employees several times at residential training courses, the last one in 2002. My book served as the text book for the part of the course I taught.
Consultant to the National Parks [and] Conservation Association, Washington, D.C., February 1995 to April 1996.
Chief, Office of Policy Development, National Park Service, Washington, D.C., 1981-86. Retired August 1986.
Member, U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Washington, D.C., 1981-86.
Deputy Chief, Park Planning and Development, National Park Service, Washington, D.C., 1978-81.
Special Assistant for the Urban National Parks to the Deputy Director, National Park Service, Washington, D.C., 1975-78. During this time I also served as the Director's Representative on Gateway National Recreation Area Planning [N.Y. and N.J.].
Executive Director, National Recreation and Park Association, a private, non-profit membership organization, Arlington, Va., 1971-75.
Director, Open Space and Urban Beautification Division, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 1966-71. Also served as HUD Representative on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1967-71.
Lecturer for U.S. Civil Service Commission (now Office of Personnel Management) on federal budgeting and systems analysis, 1967-71.
Staff Assistant to the Under Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 1964-66.
Staff Assistant, Resources Program Staff, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1963-64
Director of Public Affairs, Office of the Commissioner, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C., 1962-63.
Director of Information, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 1957-62.
Junior Management Assistant, Bureau of the Public Debt, U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, D.C., 1955-57.
Graduate Assistant and Reader, Department of Political Science, University of Calif. at Berkeley, 1954-55.
U.S. Army (Korean Conflict), Pvt. to Staff Sgt., 1952-54.
Summers during college and the summer following graduation: Forest Fire Dispatcher, Smokechaser, and Lookout, U.S. Forest Service, in western Montana, 1948-52. Also worked summers during high school.
Civic and Volunteer:
Alternate member, representing the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, on collaborative negotiating committee working to draft the first Off Road Vehicle (ORV) Regulations for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, 2007-Present
Member, then Vice President and then President of the Board of Trustees, Unitarian Coastal Fellowship, Morehead City, N.C. (1998-2002.) Member of the church long range planning committee (2005-2008.)
Member, Governing Board, Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, an intergovernmental (State) public park agency then owning and managing about 8,000 acres in northern Virginia, 1973-1981. The regional parks include outstanding natural areas, camping and recreation areas, and historic sites.
Member, Board of Directors, Arlington TeleCommunications, Inc. (ARTEC), a for-profit cable TV corporation, Arlington, Va., 1973-1979.
Member and Chairman, Arlington County Public Utilities Commission, a county government regulatory agency, Arlington, Va., 1967-1973.
Member, National Council, Boy Scouts of America, 1958-62.
Memberships:
Carteret Writers, Inc. (President, 2006-2008), Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Public Lands Foundation, Crossroads.
Current:
From 1986-95 my wife Karen and I cruised aboard our 42' ketch, TARWATHIE, along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean, island hopping as far south and east as Grenada. We returned to the States by way of Bermuda so I could write the book described below. In 1995 we moved ashore in Morehead City, N.C. I taught political science at Carteret Community College and did consulting and writing on national park system topics until we went on extended travel in 1998-99. In the fall of 1999, when my wife Karen went back to college to obtain a degree in education, I held a position as Visiting Professor of political science at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. I left teaching and returned to Morehead City in May 2001 when my wife graduated and began teaching fourth grade at Newport Elementary School in Newport, N.C.. Since 2001 I have been writing, woodworking, doing occasional consulting, and serving as alternate member on a committee drafting the first regulations covering Off Road Vehicles at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. On August 1, 2008, Karen retired from teaching and we plan to do some traveling, beginning this fall. Beyond that, who knows.
I am the author of an important book: Our National Park System: Caring For America's Greatest Natural and Historic Treasures (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995), now in its third printing. The Foreword was written by Stewart L. Udall, Secretary of the Interior during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, 1961-1969. The book has been called the “Best Book on the Subject in Thirty Years” by the late Yale University Professor of History and former Chairman of the National Park System Advisory Board, Dr. Robin Winks.
For information about the book click here.
07/29/2008