News Release

National Park Service director visits the National Parks of Boston during National Park Week

Director Sams meets National Parks of Boston staff and volunteers aboard USS CASSIN YOUNG.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: May 1, 2023

Contact: Namita Raina

BOSTON – In celebration of National Park Week, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams made his first official visit to the National Parks of Boston from April 25-26. Earlier in the week, he toured additional national parks in the greater Boston area, including Cape Cod National Seashore, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, and Minute Man National Historical Park.

"It was truly inspiring to visit national parks in and around Boston and meet with park staff, partners, and community leaders," said Director Sams. "I saw and heard firsthand how Boston’s rich history is told through diverse voices and with a commitment to sharing the full story of our nation’s evolution."

National Park Service Northeast Regional Director Gay Vietzke and National Parks of Boston Superintendent Michael Creasey accompanied Director Sams during his time in Boston.

"It was an honor to host Director Sams at the National Parks of Boston during National Park Week," said Superintendent Creasey. "The experiences that were shared with the Director gave him a good perspective of Boston, the parks, and how we work in partnership with hundreds of partners to steward these significant landscapes."

Sams participated in the keynote panel, Indigenous Knowledge Fireside Chat, at the 2023 Stone Living Lab Conference: Nature-Based Coastal Resilience in Urban Settings at UMass Boston. He joined panelist Elizabeth Solomon of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag and moderator Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space at the City of Boston.

Sams also met with Trails to Freedom partners at Old State House and members of the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership on a boat tour of the islands. He heard about the history of the islands; current efforts to maintain and preserve the islands and harbor; innovative programming that welcomes all communities to the park; and ongoing efforts to create a climate resilient future for the islands, harbor, and shoreline. He shared information about the updated National Park Service Green Parks Plan that sets refreshed goals and objectives to advance sustainable park operations.

Throughout the multi-day visit, Sams expressed gratitude for partner and community support in preserving historic sites and efforts to increase access, diversity, inclusion, and representation. He highlighted the importance of including all voices and perspectives in the telling of the American story, especially in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

While at Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Robert Gould Shaw Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial on the Boston Common, Sams congratulated the Partnership to Renew the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial and the Public Dialogue on Race on their recently completed $3 million restoration project. The project has served as a catalyst for community conversations on the important role sites of remembrance play in national identity and public life, and the meaningful role each person can play in shaping a just and racially equitable path forward.

Sams and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur M. Jaddou delivered remarks and welcomed 342 new American citizens during a special National Park Week naturalization ceremony at Faneuil Hall. Sams invited all to explore their national parks and use them as sources of inspiration, recreation and education.

At the Charlestown Navy Yard, Sams went to the site of a proposed approximately $81 million Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund infrastructure project to rehabilitate Building 107 for adaptive reuse. The project would remove and replace the interior walls, windows, and building systems. At the USS Constitution Museum, he saw highlights from the Museum’s collection and was briefed on the vision for a new Museum and Gateway Center.

Sams, a U.S. Navy veteran, then toured USS Cassin Young and USS Constitution. On Cassin Young, he met with park rangers, staff, and volunteers and learned about their work interpreting and restoring the ship. His grandfather, Charles Sams I, served on the destroyer USS Converse during World War II. Converse was activated in Boston in 1942. Both USS Cassin Young and USS Converse participated in the Leyte Operation, Luzon Operation, and the Okinawa Campaign. The Commanding Officer of USS Constitution, Billie J. Farrell, then welcomed Director Sams onboard "Old Ironsides." As he toured the ship, Sams presented crew members with America the Beautiful Military Passes that provide free access to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas, including all national parks, for military members and veterans in gratitude for their service.

Press Kit

Park Information

Bio: Chuck Sams, director of the National Park Service

National Park Service Director

Charles F. Sams III 
19th National Park Service Director 

Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III was ceremonially sworn in as the 19th director of the National Park Service on Dec. 16, 2021, by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Northeast Oregon, where he grew up. He also has blood ties to the Cocopah Tribe and Yankton Sioux of Fort Peck.

Sams most recently served as Oregon Governor Kate Brown's appointee to the Pacific Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NW Council) where he held a position as a council member from March to December of 2021. Prior to joining the NW Council, he served as executive director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

For 30 years, Sams has worked in tribal and state government, and in the non-profit natural resource and conservation management field, with an emphasis on the responsibility of strong stewardship for land preservation for this and future generations.

Sams is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he served as an intelligence specialist. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Concordia University and a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma School of Law. He lives with his wife, Lori Lynn (Reinecke) Sams and their youngest daughter in Alexandria, VA.

Official photo of Chuck Sams, National Park Service Director (Credit: NPS Photo)

Bio: Gay Vietzke, regional director of Interior Region One of the National Park Service

Gay Vietzke currently serves as Regional Director for Interior Region 1 (legacy Northeast) of the National Park Service where she has responsibility for the 83 national parks units of the region, as well as the extensive network of programs that support the National Park Service mission in the region's 13 states.

Prior to her current position, Gay served as superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, DC; Deputy Regional Director for Region 1; superintendent of Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine and Hampton National Historic Site; superintendent of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site; as well as positions at the NE regional office, Boston National Historical Park and Weir Farm National Historical Park.

Gay holds a BA from the University of Connecticut and a MS in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.

Photo of Gay Vietzke, regional director of Interior Region One of the National Park Service (Credit: NPS Photo)

Bio: Michael Creasey, superintendent of the National Parks of Boston

Over the span of three decades, Superintendent Creasey has blended his background in planning, public lands management and academia to serve in a variety of leadership positions with the National Park Service.

Creasey currently serves as the general superintendent of the National Parks of Boston which include Boston Harbor Islands, Boston National Historical Park, and Boston African American National Historic Site.

In 2010, he took a sabbatical and attended Harvard University Graduate School of Design as a Loeb Fellow where he concentrated on leadership, urban planning and public policy.

Prior to coming to Boston, Superintendent Creasey was the Director of the NPS Stewardship Institute and Superintendent of the Marsh, Billings Rockefeller National Park in Woodstock, Vermont. The Park and Institute convened park practitioners that explored innovative approaches for land conservation, environmental leadership and civic engagement. Creasey and his team were the architects of the NPS Urban Agenda that defined a strategy for designing 21st century parks and reaching more diverse constituencies and making parks relevant to all Americans.

He has also served as the Superintendent of Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts; the Commissioner for the National Parks of New York Harbor, overseeing ten national parks within the metro region of New York City and New Jersey; the Executive Director of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor in Rhode Island and Massachusetts - a bi-state partnership aimed at environmental restoration, historic preservation and recreation development; as Project Manager on the Los Caminos del Rio Heritage Project, a complex and collaborative planning effort along the lower 200 miles of the Rio Grande River in Mexico and Texas and; as a Park Planner for the NPS where he developed plans for new national parks and heritage areas in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and New Jersey. His early rangering years included stints as a river ranger, mounted patrol, backcountry ranger, and educator.

About National Parks of Boston

The National Parks of Boston is a collection of three National Park Service sites – Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site, and Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. Established by individual legislation and for designated purposes, the three units have come together under a unified organizational umbrella to collaborate in ways that celebrate our cultural heritage, reconnect people to history and nature, and provide outdoor recreation opportunities on land and on the water. For more information, visit: www.nps.gov/bost, www.nps.gov/boaf, and www.bostonharborislands.org. 

Photo for Boston National Historical Park (Credit: NPS Photo/Matthew Dwyer)

Photo for Boston African American National Historic Site (Credit: Matt Teuten)

Photo for Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park (Credit: NPS Photo)

About National Park Week

Join us for National Park Week, a nine-day celebration of everything "parks". Not just about more than 400 national parks nationwide of different shapes, sizes, and types. Also discover what the National Park Service does through our programs and partners to preserve natural and cultural heritage and provide recreational opportunities in places across the country—and even the world!

National Park Week is happening April 22 to April 30 this year. Entrance fees will be waived on April 22, 2023, to kick off the celebration and to encourage everyone to enjoy their national parks in person. National Park Service parks, programs, and partners will host events and activities all week! Follow National Park Week on social media and join the fun all week using #NationalParkWeek.

Press Release for National Park Week

Duration:

6 minutes, 40 seconds

On Tuesday April 25, 2023, the 19th Director of the National Park Service addressed 342 new citizens of the United States during their naturalization ceremony at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. Naturalization ceremonies are a modern tradition at Faneuil Hall, and for National Park Week Director Sams joined the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur M. Jaddou to take part in this special ceremony.