Arno B. Cammerer

Who was Arno B. Cammerer?

Arno Berthold Cammerer was the third director of the U.S. National Park Service.

Cammerer was born in Arapahoe, Nebraska in 1883. He was the son of a Lutheran pastor. He went to Washington, D.C in 1904 to work as a civil service bookkeeper, and earned a Bachelor of Law degree at Georgetown Law School in 1911.

The U.S. National Park Service's first director, Stephen Mather, recognized Cammerer's competence as executive secretary of the Fine Arts Commission, and appointed him as assistant director in 1919, replacing previous assistant director Horace M. Albright, who then became Director. He served as Mather's right-hand man in Washington and acted for him in his frequent absences over the next decade. After the project to found Great Smoky Mountains National Park proved expensive, Cammerer secured a promise from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to match $5 million in the acquisition of Shenandoah National Park lands. He advanced to the new rank of associate director on January 12, 1929.