Wirth was born in
Hartford, Connecticut, where his father
Theodore was park superintendent. Seven years later, Theodore moved to
Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he became superintendent of the Minneapolis Park System. Conrad Wirth grew up in the
Theodore Wirth House, the home built by the Park System for his father, surrounded by city park. Conrad earned a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape gardening from Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the
University of Massachusetts Amherst) and studied with
Frank Waugh. He first came to the Washington, D.C., area to work for the
National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and he joined the NPS in 1931. With the coming of the
New Deal he supervised the service's
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program in the state parks. At that time, he hired
Dorothy Waugh, Frank Waugh's daughter, to develop a manual with simplified diagrams and instructions for constructing basic park structures as many CCC participants could not interpret blueprints. His administrative ability made him a successor to Director
Arthur E. Demaray, whom he served as associate director before advancing to the top job in December 1951. Wirth's crowning achievement was
Mission 66, a 10-year, billion-dollar program to upgrade park facilities and services by the 50th anniversary of the NPS in 1966. Wirth submitted his resignation to President
John F. Kennedy in the fall of 1963 and left the directorship in early 1964, after recommending
George B. Hartzog Jr. as his successor. He went on to supervise the Interior Department's CCC program. A member of the
National Geographic Society's Board of Trustees, he was also active in conservation and Park Service alumni affairs. He died in his sleep in 1993. == Legacy ==