Sidney
Stiles KennedySidney
Stiles KennedySidney Stiles Kennedy (1900-1987) received the state level Pugsley Medal in 1962, “For distinguished service and exceptional competence in furthering the objectives of state park conservation by providing cooperative assistance to the states in all aspects of their park and recreation programs. Perhaps more than any other individual, Kennedy has aided state park organizations and professionals to keep in touch as a group and abreast of state park technical advances.” Kennedy was born in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He attended Central Michigan University and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University in 1923. In 1928, he was graduated from Harvard University with a master of landscape architecture degree.
After his graduation, Kennedy was employed as an instructor at Central High School in Lansing, Michigan, for two years, and then hired by landscape architects in Boston, Massachusetts, and Ithaca, New York, for a period of four years, after which he entered state park work with the Finger Lakes State Park Commission, and then the Genesee State Park Commission, in New York. In 1933, Kennedy entered the National Park Service as a landscape foreman in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Ithaca, New York, serving successively as CCC camp inspector and assistant regional officer.
In 1936, he was transferred to Washington, D.C. as a park planner and served with distinction in a wide variety of positions with increasing responsibility and effectiveness. These positions included being chief of the NPS’s branch of recreation studies, state cooperation branch and the division of cooperative services. This work involved providing cooperative assistance to federal, state, and local agencies, including consultative and advisory assistance on all aspects of park and recreation area programs; reservoir planning and management; park practice programs; and recommendations on surplus federal properties requested by state and local agencies for park, recreation and historic monument use.
With the creation of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation in April 1962, Kennedy was named chief, division of cooperative services, for the new bureau. His responsibilities included providing technical assistance in outdoor recreation planning and operation to states and their political subdivisions. Technical assistance and services for which he was responsible included all phases of recreation planning and management. In addition, he was responsible for making recommendations to the General Services Administration on the disposal of surplus real properties for park, recreation and historic monument purposes.
Kennedy actively collaborated in the publication of Year Book - Park and Recreation Progress: Criteria for Selection of State Parks, which was adopted by the National Conference on State Parks and was widely used; State Park Statistics, which annually provided useful data to all state park organizations; State Park Fees and Charges; State Park Notes, a quarterly summary of the most significant accomplishments and events in the field of state park conservation, published in Planning and Civic Comment; and Park Practice, the National Conference on State Parks’ medium for disseminating information of new developments in park techniques and policies. He rendered valuable assistance in the publication of The State Parks – Their Meaning in American Life, written by Freeman Tilden.