Newton Bishop Drury (April 9, 1889 – December 14, 1978) was the fourth director of the American

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

and the executive director of the

Save the Redwoods League Save the Redwoods League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') and giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') trees through the preemptive purchase of development rights ...

Early life

Newton was born in 1889 in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He attended Lowell High School, as well as the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he graduated in 1912. He served in the U.S. Army Balloon Corps in World War I. The destruction that he witnessed motivated him strongly towards conservation.Newton Drury
". Pugsley Award website. Retrieved on June 14, 2010.

Career

In 1919, he and his brother Aubrey formed the Drury Brothers Company, an advertising and public relations agency. That same year, the organizers of the

, many of whom knew Drury from the university, asked Drury Brothers to manage the League. Newton Drury became executive secretary in charge of publicity and fund raising, a position he held for twenty years. Drury and the league obtained a six-million dollar bond measure passed to buy California redwood groves.

National Park Service

Drury declined appointment as NPS Director in 1933, but accepted the job in 1940. He was the first director without prior national park responsibilities, but came with strong conservationist credentials, having served as executive secretary of the Save the Redwoods League in California. During World War II he successfully resisted most demands for consumptive uses of park resources. Less eager than his predecessors to expand the park system, he opposed NPS involvement with areas he judged not to meet national park standards. Differences with Secretary of the Interior

Oscar L. Chapman Oscar Littleton Chapman (October 22, 1896 – February 8, 1978) was the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, during President Truman's administration, from 1949 to 1953. Early life and career Chapman was born in Omega, Halifax County, Virgin ...

over Chapman's support for dams in Dinosaur National Monument contributed to Drury's resignation in 1951. After his resignation from the park service Drury accepted the position as head of the California Division of Beaches and Parks. He was instrumental in changing some of the operational policies of the state park system to that similar to the national park system. In particular he dropped the recreational emphasis in summer programming to that of interpretation with a natural history emphasis.

Death

Drury died in December 1978. He received a Pugsley Medal twice, a silver medal in 1940 and a gold medal in 1950. He was board chairman of the Save the Redwoods League at his death.

Legacy

The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway is the long two-lane road through

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park, located in Humboldt County, California, near the town of Orick and 50 miles (80 km) north of Eureka. The 14,000 acre (57 km²) park is a coastal sanctuary for old-growth Coast Redw ...

in Humboldt County, California, named to honor his efforts in the creation of

Redwood National and State Parks The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one national park and three state parks, cooperatively managed, located in the United States along the coast of northern California. Comprising Redwood National Park (established 1968 ...

. This road had formerly been the route of US Route 101. Though shorter in distance, it is similar in quality to the

Avenue of the Giants The Avenue of the Giants is a scenic highway in northern California, United States, running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It is named after the coastal redwoods that tower over the route. The road is a former alignment of U.S. Route 101, ...

in Southern Humboldt County. As a result of constructing a new route, completed in 1993, for US Route 101 outside the eastern edge of the park, main traffic along US Route 101 is diverted from going through

, and old growth redwoods within the park will not ever be required to be removed to widen the road. Drury Peak in the Mount San Jacinto State Park, Riverside County, California, is named after him as well.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drury, Newton B. Directors of the National Park Service 1889 births 1978 deaths