Kenneth R. CougillKenneth R. CougillKenneth R. Cougill (1908 – 1966) received the state level Pugsley Medal in 1957 “for his leadership in the promotion and development of state parks.” He was born in Greene County, Ohio, but received his early education in the schools of Anderson, Indiana. He devoted his entire career to the field of conservation, and to the development of Indiana’s state park system. Cougill attended DePauw University in 1925 and later transferred to the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts from which he graduated in 1933 with a B.S. in city planning and landscape architecture.
Immediately after his graduation, he joined the National Park Service and was assigned to Indiana as a landscape supervisor with the Civilian Conservation Corps. He went to work with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources soon after and prepared designs for the improvement of such state parks as Brown County, Clifty Falls, Versailles, Turkey Run, and Lincoln. In 1939, he was appointed superintendent of Indiana Dunes State Park where he obtained first-hand experience of the problems of a superintendent. He retained this position until 1945 except for a brief period of active service in the U.S. Army Reserves beginning in 1942. In 1945, he was promoted to administrative assistant to the director of state parks.
In 1946, he was appointed assistant director of the Division of State Parks and then in 1947, he was appointed director in which capacity he served through the administrations of four governors. The Division of State Parks was one of the three land-holding divisions in the Indiana Department of Conservation. In January 1957, he was appointed assistant director of the Indiana Department of Conservation under a fifth governor and continued to serve also as director of state parks. Even with his full schedule at that time, Cougill found time to serve as an instructor in park practices at Indiana University from 1953-60. He retired in September 1964 because of illness after 31 years with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Under his leadership, the Indiana state park system was strengthened and expanded. The number of state parks increased from 15 to 22 and state memorials increased from 11 to16.
In its early years, the Indiana state park system selected park areas on the basis of their outstanding scenic, geological, historical or ecological features. Under Cougill’s leadership, however, areas were acquired for the purpose of providing recreational facilities for such activities as swimming, fishing, and boating, rather than for their historical or geological significance. In 1946, when he first became director, annual visitation at Indiana state parks was 1.3 million. When he retired in 1964, it had increased to over 4 million. In 1958, Cougill observed, “America has overnight become a nation on wheels” and in response he undertook a substantial expansion of the camping sites available in Indiana state parks. He was conscious of the role state parks played in tourism observing, “Although state parks themselves are not classed as part of commercial tourist business, they do attract hundreds and thousands of travelers.
Cougill was instrumental in conveying the Nancy Hanks State Lincoln Memorial (President Lincoln’s mother) to the National Park Service where it became the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. These components comprising 200 acres of Lincoln State Park, were transferred to the Park Service in 1962. This designation was established as the result of several studies encouraged by Cougill which were effective in advancing the cause of establishing this national memorial. The monument remains to this day one of the most frequently visited parks in the region.
Cougill participated actively in the National Conference on State Parks and served as its president from 1956 – 58. He was appointed by President Eisenhower as a member of the President’s Citizens Advisory Committee on Youth Fitness, and served with distinction in this capacity as the committee oversaw development of a comprehensive national youth fitness awards program. He was also appointed a member of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission Advisory Council from 1959-62.