User:Binnewies

Robert O. Binnewies was born on August 18, 1937, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In 1959 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree, Forest Recreation, from Colorado State University. He was married in 1961 to Esther (Midge) Hagen. The newlyweds moved to Yellowstone National Park where Robert assumed duties as a Park Ranger at Madison Junction and Old Faithful. The couple spent two winters "snowed in" at Old Faithful. In 1964 Robert was transferred to a National Park Service training assignment in Washington, D. C. and, subsequently, in 1967, was assigned as Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park, Maine. While living in Maine he met Mrs. David (Peggy) Rockefeller and assisted her in establishment of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization that provides free counseling on the use of conservation easements for private landowners. Binnewies served for five-years as the organization's Executive Director. In 1977 he rejoined the National Park Service on assignment in Atlanta, Georgia, before accepting the position of Group Vice President, National Audubon Society, in New York City. In 1979 he was selected by National Park Service Director Bill Whalen to become Superintendent of Yosemite National Park. While serving at Yosemite he approved the 1980 General Management Plan and established the Return-of-Light fundraising campaign, now the Yosemite Fund. In 1986 Binnewies was reassigned from Yosemite to the N.P.S. Regional Office in San Francisco. In 1988 he was appointed by Governor Mario Cuomo as Assistant Commissioner, State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation. He assumed duties as Executive Director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in 1989 and served in that position for a decade. He chaired the Public/Private Partnership to Save Sterling Forest, culminating in acquisition and designation of 20,000-acre Sterling Forest as a state park. On retirement he wrote Palisades, 100,000 Acres in 100 Years published by Fordham University Press. As a retiree, he served as Chairman of the Board of the Santa Lucia Conservancy, a nonprofit conservation organization located near Carmel, California, and as President of the Board of the Los Luceros Foundation, a historic preservation entity near Alcalde, New Mexico. He and his wife reside in Ashland, Oregon.