Crater lake has new superintendent: Craig Ackerman will move from the Oregon Caves National Monument

Herald and News
Klamath Falls, Oregon
March 5, 2008

By LEE JUILLERAT

H&N Regional Editor

Crater Lake National Park’s newly named superintendent plans to live, breathe and work in his soon-to-be snowy environment.

Craig Ackerman, who will move from Oregon Caves National Monument, where he’s been the superintendent the past 17 years, to Crater Lake in early May. He plans to live at the park.

“It will be important to understand what the people working and living there are going through,” says Ackerman, whose appointment was announced Tuesday by regional director Jonathan Jarvis.

Ackerman, 52, will replace Chuck Lundy, who retired in December. Ackerman and his wife, Cynthia, have two grown children.

Familiar with park

While working at Oregon Caves, Ackerman has been familiar with many of the personnel and issues at Crater Lake.

“The thing I’m most excited about is completing the development projects at the rim,” he said, referring to the plans to develop Crater Lake's first-ever visitor center. “That’s a critical piece.”

He plans to educate himself about the park’s ongoing natural resource concerns, such as lake water quality issues.

“I certainly have spent time at Crater Lake and, because of the close relationship between the two parks, I am familiar with some of the staff and the issues. And I have an understanding of the role Crater Lake plays in travel and tourism in Southern Oregon and in the state. It is absolutely a marriage of the best worlds for me,” he said of the pending transfer. “Crater Lake is not a jewel of the national park system, but a crown jewel internationally.”

Jarvis, himself a former Crater Lake ranger, said he selected Ackerman because, “ I am impressed with Craig’s instincts in working with all interested parties. He is a seasoned manager who can build and motivate a team and has a proven track record of developing and fostering complex partnerships.”

Ackerman is a graduate of West Virginia University with a degree in recreation resources management.

Craig Ackerman is the newly appointed superintendent of Crater Lake National Park. Ackerman replaces Chuck Lundy who retired at the end of last year.

No stranger to Oregon, Ackerman will move to the village at Crater Lake from his post at Oregon Caves National Monument. Park partners, employees and visitors will begin to see him around Crater Lake by the end of April, said regional director Jon Jarvis.

“I am impressed with Craig’s instincts in working with all interested parties,” said Jarvis.  “He is a seasoned manager who can build and motivate a team and has a proven track record of developing and fostering complex partnerships.”

Ackerman has nearly 30 years of national and state park management experience.  During his 17 years at Oregon Caves, as area manager and later superintendent, he has shepherded in a general management plan and facilitated the development of a unique nonprofit concession.  His experience with commercial services in parks led him to serve two details as the acting chief of concessions for Pacific West Region.

Prior to joining the National Park Service, he managed several West Virginia state parks and forests, including the state’s largest, Watoga State Park.  Ackerman also served as an NPS ranger on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi and at Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee.

As superintendent of Oregon Caves, he has been an active member of the executive board of the Southern Oregon Visitors Association to coordinate and promote outdoor recreation and tourism and currently is president of that organization.

“Looking out over Crater Lake and the surrounding forest is an astonishing view that inspires ideas and enthusiasm” said Ackerman.  “To be able to move into a position of managing one of the crown jewels of the National Park system, yet still serve and live amongst the people of southern Oregon is the greatest privilege.  I look forward to working with the fine park staff and dedicated park partners in preserving this magnificent place.”

Ackerman has a bachelor of science degree in recreation resources management from West Virginia University.  He and his wife Cynthia have a daughter, Elyssa, who is a graduate of Oregon State University and a son, Kyle, who is currently a junior there.
[Submitted by Holly Bundock, holly_bundock@nps.gov, 510-817-1320]