Horace Marden Albright

Bishop pioneer Horace Albright remembered
by Jane Fisher

NORTH HOLLWOOD – Sometime in the early morning hours 
last Saturday, Bishop pioneer Horace Marden Albright, 
co-founder and second director of the National Park 
Service, died quietly in his sleep at the Chandler 
Convalescent Home in North Hollywood.  He was 97 
years old, but never saw his work as finished.

His life was dedicated to conservation, and probably 
his most important accomplishment was his major role 
in guiding legislation through congress in 1916 
establishing the National Park Service, of which he 
was director from 1919 to 1923.

“Almost unwittingly,” he once said, “Congress created 
the first great forest preserve, the first great 
wildlife preserve and the first great watershed 
protection when Yellowstone was established.”

Considered the world’s foremost conservationist, 
Albright was a central figure in the movement in the 
first half of the 20th century. By 1972 there were 
100 other countries in the act and 1,200 national 
parks scattered around the world, due to his 
influence and modeled on the one he built.  His 
philosophy called for balance between wilderness 
preservation and the right of the public to have 
access.  A skillful administrator and promoter, he 
was able to draw support from rival interest groups, 
warring conservation organizations, congressmen and 
cabinet officers.

Albright was awarded the nation’s highest honor, the 
Medal of Freedom, when he was 91.  Awarded by 
President Carter, it was one of only a dozen given 
since 1945.

Trusted advisor to presidents and to one of the 
world’s richest men, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in the 
field of conservation purchases such as the Virgin 
Islands, and Grand Teton National Park, Albright once 
rode for four long hours with President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt through Civil War battlefields, urging 
expansion of the National Park Service.

Horace Marden Albright was born January 6, 1890, 
Bishop.  He attended the University of California at 
Berkeley, where he received a Bachelor of Letters 
degree in 1912.  He received a Bachelor of Laws degree 
from Georgetown University in 1914, and honorary 
degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of 
Montana in 1956, the University of California in 1961, 
and the University of New Mexico in 1962.

He was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia 
and in California in 1914 and became a member of the 
staff of the Secretary of the Interior from 1913 to 
1915, later assistant attorney, Department of Interior, 
assigned to national park affairs.  He was made 
assistant director of the National Park Service from 
1917 to 1919, acting director (1917-18), and later 
superintendent of Yellowstone National Park from 1919 
to 1929.  He was temporarily in charge of Yosemite 
National Park (1927-18) and then made director of the 
National Park Service from 1929-1933.

His trusteeships, presidencies, chairmanships, and 
directorships were vast.  They included the National 
Capital Park and Planning Conservancy, American Scenic 
and Historic Preservation Society, Resources for the 
Future, American Planning and Civic Association, Death 
Valley Forty-Niners, Pacific Tropical Botanic Garden 
in Hawaii, American Pioneer Trails Association, the 
Cosmos Club, the Grand Teton Lodge Company, Save the 
Redwoods League, American Society of Landscape 
Architects, the natural resources committee of the 
Hoover Commission, and the National Outdoor 
Recreation Resources Review Committee.

Albright has been immortalized on radio and 
television and has been the subject, the author and 
coauthor of countless books and articles.  
“Wilderness Defender” is the story of his life up 
to 1970 by Donald C. Swain, associate professor of 
history at the University of California at Davis.

From 1933 to 1946, Albright was vice president, 
general manager, and director of the United States 
Potash Company, and then president until he retired 
in 1956.  In addition to his central role in shaping 
the National Park Service, he collaborated in the 
establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 
the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg and the 
founder of Resources for the Future.  As bureaucrat 
or businessman, his commitment to conservation was 
always foremost.

In addition to the Medal Freedom, his awards and 
honors are too many to list.  Among them: the Royal 
Order of Northern Star awarded by the King of Sweden; 
the Pugsley Gold Medal established in his honor by 
the American Scenic and Historic Preservation 
Society; Alumnus of the year by the University of 
California; the Theodore Roosevelt Association 
Distinguished Service Award; the Audubon Medal, 
highest award of the National Audubon Society; and 
the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award for establishing 
such national parks as Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce 
Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains.

When the Slim Princess chapter of the historical and 
humbug society, E Clampus Vitus, dedicated a plaque 
in his honor near his birthplace in Bishop, he told 
them he had to answer worldwide the question “why” 
he was born in Bishop.  “That’s where my mother was,” 
he liked to tell them, “and in times like that one 
wants to be close to his mother.”

Albright’s most recent book on the park service, 
“The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding 
Years,” coauthored with Pulitzer Prize-winning author 
Robert Cahn, was published last year.  Another, in 
collaboration with Russ Dickenson and Bill Mott, for 
director of the Park Service, will be published this 
spring.

Retiring from the business world in 1971, the 
Albrights moved to the San Fernando Valley to be near 
daughter Marian Schenck.  Grace Albright, Horace’s 
wife of 65 years, died six years ago.  Besides his 
daughter, survivors include a grandson, three 
granddaughters, one of whom is married to a park 
service ranger, and nine grandchildren.  A nephew, 
Stanley T. Albright, was the honored guest of the 
Eastern High Sierra Packers’ Association at Mule Days 
last year, and is Associate Director of Park 
Operations for the National Park Service.

Horace Marden Albright was called the greatest living 
American by President Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, and 
Lowell Thomas.  They didn’t mean that he was famous, 
as they were by nature of their positions, but that he 
was great of heart and mind.  And so he was, right up 
to the end.


The Inyo Register
Bishop, Inyo County, California
Wednesday, April 1, 1987 – Front Page(continued on page 3)

Transcribed by Pat Houser for 
Inyo County GenWeb, June 2, 2004