Edmund B. Rogers
Cornelius Amory Pugsley National Medal Award, 1960
Edmund B. Rogers (1891-1972) received the national level Pugsley Medal in 1960 for “his service as the chief executive of two great national parks astride the Rocky Mountains, the successful results of his far-reaching historical research, and his dedication to the cause of natural resource conservation.”
Mountains, lakes, streams and forests call men and women in vacation time from their pursuits in the world of professions and business. Even bankers answer the call of the wild, but rarely does a banker forsake his fascinating trade and dedicate his life to the conservation of nature and natural resources. Edmund Burrell Rogers of Colorado did just that through a thirty year career as a senior executive in the National Park Service.
His father was a pioneer Colorado surgeon, so he was a member of an old and distinguished family of Denver. His boyhood was spent in the Rockies. He was educated in Denver public schools before becoming a student at Cornell University in 1910-11 and then transferring to Yale University where he received his A.B. Degree in 1915. He was a private in U.S. Army (1918-19). During his college years he worked for the topographic unit of the U.S. Geological Survey and also briefly was office manager of the Rocky Mountain Division of the American Red Cross. After service in the U.S. Army during World War I, he became a trust officer with the Colorado National Bank from 1919-29.
Early in 1929, Rogers accepted appointment as superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park. He was hand-picked by the outgoing superintendent, Roger Toll, who was transferred to Yellowstone. Rogers’ appointment “was not a surprise in Denver.” He had been personally endorsed by Colorado Senators Phipps and Waterman, as well as other prominent Coloradans. Rogers was no stranger to the history and problems of the park. National Parks had been a “sort of hobby” with him. He was a charter member of the Colorado Mountain Club and its president in both 1925 and 1927. He knew Stephen Mother and Horace Albright well and “had been in on” the campaign to establish Rocky Mountain National Park. His brother was James Grafton Rogers who authored the bill creating the park. Edmund Rogers “had grown up” with the Tolls. He and Roger Toll had traveled most of Rocky Mountain National Park by foot on weekend trips. Thus, Roger was not apprehensive about following his successful friend as superintendent.
Rogers’ seven-year superintendency was chiefly noted for the building of Trail Ridge Road over the Continental Divide, but great progress was also made acquiring private holdings of lands within the park boundances. The 17-mile project across the mountains at high attitude was a major challenge; and it took from 1929 to 1936 to build the road. It provided work in the Depression for hundreds of young men in the area. CCC corps assigned to the park also facilitated its development in Rogers’ tenure.
In 1936 he was transferred to Yellowstone National Park, which is the oldest and largest in the system. There he served until 1957 which was far longer than any other superintendent, carrying the enormous responsibility of park management through the last lean years of the Depression and the leaner ones of World War II with his rangers in the military forces and funds wholly inadequate for even minimal protection and maintenance. Suddenly with the end of the War came vacation-hungry Americans in overwhelming numbers -- well over a million in the short summer season -- before either men or money were available to cope with the joyous invasion.
Ten years followed with ever-increasing travel and new problems for the superintendent to deal with. Calmly and efficiently he solved them and the great park’s affairs were always in order. Beginning in 1957 he served as special assistant to NPS director, and remained in that position until his retirement in 1961.
Rogers had a deep interest in history and a natural talent for research that prompted the tireless and scholarly superintendent of Yellowstone to uncover, in the records of the Federal Government and the various State capitols, complete information regarding all legislation enacted or ever proposed relating to the national parks and monuments, and to fully document his discoveries. He completed this project in his role as a special assistant to the NPS director. His Pugsley Medal citation states, “This monumental work alone merits the highest praise as an achievement above and beyond the call of duty.” He was the editor of the Rocky Mountain Letters.
Sources:
Who's Who in America
National Park Service. Administrative History of Rockey Mountain National Park. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/romo/resources/history/adhi/adhi6.htm
Pugsley Award Citation material.