THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410290174
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
The man now in charge of a 6.5-million acre park in Alaska has been named the new superintendent at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Russell Berry, 51, replaces Tom Hartman, who is retiring after 37 years with the National Park Service, including 13 at Cape Hatteras.
Currently, Berry is superintendent of the sprawling Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska, where he has served for the past five years.
A native of Portsmouth, and a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School there, Berry holds a bachelor's degree in American history from Old Dominion University.
Berry and his wife, Jean, a native of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, have a son, Glenn, and a daughter, Wendy. Berry's parents still live in Portsmouth.
``Russ Berry will be a strong leader at Cape Hatteras,'' said National Park Service Director Roger Kennedy in Washington, D.C. ``His experience in managing a wide variety of parks throughout the country makes him superbly qualified for the challenging job at Cape Hatteras.''
Berry was on vacation and could not be reached for comment Friday.
A 28-year park service veteran, Berry was trained at Grand Canyon National Park, and then went on to his first job as historian at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis. Before moving to Alaska in 1989, Berry served at Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. He previously served stints as assistant superintendent at Big Bend National Park and Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River in Texas.
Berry also has been superintendent at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Northern Virginia, and of two national historic sites in Massachusetts: the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy.
At Cape Hatteras, Berry will lead a staff of about 100 permanent employees and about 100 seasonal workers who protect and manage the 30,319-acre national seashore, the site of the first permanent English settlement at Fort Raleigh and the site of the Wright Brothers' first powered flight at Kill Devil Hills. The combined parks attract more than 3 million visitors annually. The park receives about $5.5 million a year in federal funding.
Hartman, who supervised the renovation and reopening of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the reconstruction of a number of Outer Banks historic sites, will retire Dec. 2.
``I want to enjoy this place,'' Hartman, who makes his home in Southern Shores, said earlier this month. ``I'm still a young man, but I've been at the grindstone a long, long time. I've lived in vacation land all my adult life, but I haven't taken a vacation in 15 years. Now I want to enjoy this country's national parks, as I've seen others doing for so long.'' by CNB