2004: Bryan Harry
Director of the National Park Service Pacific West Region

Bryan has had a long and distinguished career with the National Park Service that includes Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Parks. In 1975, Bryan was appointed Alaska Area Director. In addition to his strong advocacy for natural resource management, Bryan has demonstrated an equally strong interest in cultural conservation. In Alaska he headed the Alaska Task Force that assisted native Alaskans in identifying historic places, which lead to an increase in NPS units in Alaska from four to 16 units protecting over 54.6 million acres of land.

In 1980 Bryan was appointed to his current position as Director of the National Park Service Pacific West Region and oversees the 11 National Parks in this Region. He has continued his strong efforts to protect natural and cultural resources. He has demonstrated time and again a creative and enduring talent for acquiring and managing important natural and cultural landscapes that might otherwise have not received the protection given by National Park status. In the early 1970s, Bryan led the way in planning and implementing landscape management of Hawaiian ecosystems, including the control and removal of invasive alien species. This was the beginning of the modern era of resource management in Hawai‘i. Bryan continues to work on critical conservation issues in Hawai‘i, including the U.S. Coral Reef Initiative, which again demonstrates the far reach of his conservation interests.