Robert K. Sutton took over the reins of Chief Historian of the National Park Service in October 2007, and he hasn't been busier. The Portland State University alum, who earned his Masters in History degree at the Portland, Oregon based university in 1973; had just returned from Memorial ceremonies at Pearl Harbor. Dr. Sutton was the featured speaker at the joint memorial the National Park Service co-hosted with the U.S. Navy on the 66th anniversary of the December 7, 1941 attack that brought America into the 2nd World War.
After the memorial ceremony held at Naval Station Pearl Harbor's Kilo Pier, Sutton went on to dedicate the new USS Oklahoma Memorial on Ford Island, where the battleship sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor with a loss of 429 sailors and Marines. These are only a few of the duties that Sutton is taking in stride with his new position, and he credits the History Department at PSU with putting him on the path to his promotion to Chief Historian. "I wouldn't be where I am today, if it hadn't been for Professor Dodds and PSU," he said as he reflected back on his studies. "My classes in History at PSU were hard, but they gave me the discipline I needed to succeed in my career."
"I was taking a U.S. History survey class with Professor Tom Morris, and had just walked into the History department in Cramer Hall , when Gordon (Dodds) came up to me and handed me an announcement. "There's a part time opening for a park ranger at Ft. Vancouver, why don't you apply for it, " he said. Sutton interviewed for the job at what is now the Ft. Vancouver National Historical Reserve and was hired on the spot. The rest, as they say, is history."
The Chief Historian is a very prestigious post with its headquarters in Washington D.C. His duties include supplying guidance and direction to the national parks on interpreting the significance of America's historically designated places. He will be providing national leadership in the setting and implementation of NPS standards and guidelines in the "documentation of historically significant properties."
Prior to his promotion, Sutton had been the supervisor for the last 12 years of the Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. Of the 29 Civil War sites in the National Park Service, Manassas has the 7th highest annual attendance, with over 800,000 annual visitors. While he was at Manassas, Dr. Sutton established a major symposium on the Civil War that attracted acclaimed scholars like James McPherson; he oversaw the restoration of a 100 acre section of the park through a unique partnership with the Smithsonian Institution;
A native Oregonian, Sutton received his Masters degree in History at PSU, and holds a PhD degree in history from WSU. He began his career as a park ranger with Ft. Vancouver and also held a position as museum curator at the Oregon Historical Society. He has been a historian with the Oregon State Parks system, an architectural historian with the NPS Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico; a historian with Independence National Historic Park and more. Since 1991 he has served as adjunct professor of history at George Mason University. Seven years ago, Sutton was the recipient of the Department of the Interior's Meritorious Service Award.
He is the editor of :Rally on the High Ground: National Park Service Symposium on the Intrepretation of the Civil War, and co-author of the book: Majestic in His Wrath: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Sutton also published his book : Americans Intrepret the Parthenon: Greek Revival Architecture and the Westward Movement.
Sutton makes frequent trips to the Portland metro area and to Ft. Vancouver whenever he visits his 92 year old father in Salem. He often stops by his old stomping grounds at Ft. Vancouver and recently told Ft Vancouver's Chief Ranger, Greg Shine that he felt that the Public History Field School based there was "a great program and a wonderful hands-on opportunity for students." He was equally ehthusiastic about Ft. Vancouver because he was "happy to see much that was familiar, and much that was new and wonderful."
The NPS is busy planning for the National celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln in 2009 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, and Sutton has his hands full. Other history projects under his management include those that will develop from the Centennial of the National Park Service through 2016.
For more information, contact KC Piccard at (503)725-5473
