John J. Reynolds was appointed Regional Director for the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service, May 11, 1997. He is responsible for all activities of the National Park Service in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and the Pacific Islands. Before John's current assignment he served as General Manager of the Presidio.

He served as the Deputy Director for the National Park Service in Washington, DC for three years, from 1993-1996.

John is a 37-year careerist whose tenure with the NPS has been broad and varied - both professionally and geographically. He joined the NPS in 1961 while still a student and worked summers in Yellowstone National Park, the Western Office of Design and Construction in San Francisco, and in the Guadalupe Mountains, Texas. He began his full-time career in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office in Philadelphia, as a landscape architect in 1966. His assignments before Deputy Director spanned branch chief, assistant superintendent, superintendent, assistant director (design and construction), and regional director (Mid-Atlantic Region).

John has completed foreign assignments for the NPS in Saudi Arabia; India; Poland; Great Britain; Japan; Venezuela; and the Netherlands.  He has served for five years on the U.S. delegation to the World Heritage Committee.

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the State University College of Forestry at Syracuse University. He is a Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects, and has received the Iowa State University Design Award for Distinguished Alumnus. He is a recipient of the Department of the Interior's first and second highest honors, the Distinguished and Meritorious Service Awards.

John is active in the American Society of Landscape Architects where he has served in a number of leadership rolls including chair of its Blue Ribbon Task Force on Environment and Development. He is the author of several articles, and was the project leader in creating the NPS's Guiding Principles of Sustainable Design, (1993). He has served on the Board of Directors of the Landscape Architecture Foundation, including as its president.

John was born in Yellowstone National Park. John and his wife, Bobbie, have one son Michael.