Charles E. Doell (1894-1983) was educated as an engineer at the University Minnesota, and a veteran of active service in France during World War I. He went on to become an articulate and imaginative national leader of America’s park movement.

Doell served as Secretary of the Board of the Minneapolis Park Commission for 30 years during which time he was closely involved both with public politics and with the building and expansion of one of the nation’s most prestigious urban park systems. In 1945 he was named superintendent of the Minneapolis Park System, a position that he occupied with distinction and honor until his retirement in 1959. He completed 48 years of continuous service with the Minneapolis Park Commission starting in 1916 as a draftsman and then Assistant Engineer, Assistant to the Secretary, Secretary and Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent. He served in many capacities as an aide to Theodore Wirth and C.A. Bossen.

Charles Doell was well known for his congeniality and his genuine interest in people. He was prominent in the social affairs of his community where he served as president of the Minneapolis Athletic Club. He also served as President of the American Institute of Park Executives in 1947, and was instrumental in extending the Institute’s service and power to park systems all over the United States and Canada. He was prominent in the early affairs of the National Recreation and Park Association, and of the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration. In 1954 he co-authored, with Dr. Gerald Fitzgerald of the University of Minnesota, A Brief History of Parks and Recreation in the U.S. He was awarded the Cornelius Amory Pugsley medal in 1957.

Doell also collaborated with Paul J. Thompson, an Attorney, in writing Public Park Policies. He wrote several of the chapters in L. H. Weir’s two-volume manual on Parks, and he co-authored Origin and Development of Parks and Recreation with Dr. Fitzgerald.

He was a consistent contributor to Parks and Recreation magazine, Recreation magazine, and on occasion contributed to other Canadian and English publications. He was also editor of the Minnesota Engineer, a publication of the Minnesota Federation of Engineering Societies.

Mr. Doell served as a park and recreation consultant on a number of occasions. In1957, upon request of the Secretary of the Interior, he served as a member of a team of park experts who surveyed the National Capital Parks System in Washington, D.C., and, in the same year, he participated in similar surveys of the Westchester County Park System in New York and the Tulsa Park System in Oklahoma.

As a national spokesman for the park profession, Charles Doell was an adamant advocate for providing quality in public service. He insisted that park professionals should provide both a quality product and quality service within a framework of morality. "This (morality) should be of a high degree and as close to the array of the virtues of a Galahad or a Lancelot as reality will permit in both private and public business. But, it may be observed that while desire for high quality is prevalent in private business, it is essential in public business."

After retirement, Doell was appointed as a Visiting Professor of Park Administration at both Michigan State University and Texas Technological University (1960 to 1966). It was while he was developing and teaching new courses at Michigan State University that he wrote his textbook, Elements of Park Administration (1963; 4th and final edition 1979). In 1972, Michigan State created the Charles E. Doell Award for Excellence which is presented annually to an undergraduate majoring in Park and Recreation Administration.

As Secretary and Superintendent of the Minneapolis Park Commission, and in his years of service to his profession, Doell followed giants and in the process became one himself.

Sources

Portions of the material used for this bio were written by Lou Twardzik nomination of Doell to the NRPA Recreation and Park Hall of Fame. Material was also taken from statement developed in honor of his receipt of the Pugley Award,

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