Russell Dickenson, who started his career as a ranger and worked his way up to run the National Park Service for five years in the early 1980s, died Feb. 19 after a long battle with cancer. He was 84. Dickenson died in his home in Bellevue, Wash., east of Seattle.
"I grew up in the national parks and lived in many of them," said Dickenson's daughter, Vivian Barber. "I had a unique childhood. He had a true reverence for nature and instilled a lot of that into us."
Born and raised in Texas, Dickenson graduated from Northern Arizona University and served four years in the Marine Corps before joining the Park Service in 1946, beginning his career at Grand Canyon National Park.
He spent decades in the field before becoming the agency's deputy director in 1973. He took over the Pacific Northwest's regional office in 1975, then became national director of the Park Service in 1980.
Of all the parks he worked in, Dickenson told his daughter that his favorite was Washington state's North Cascades, because of its rugged mountain scenery.
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