Thomas
W. MorseThomas
W. MorseThomas W. Morse (1906-1986) received the State/Regional Pugsley Medal in 1958 “for imaginative planning and direction of the development and operation of the outstanding state park system of North Carolina with special emphasis on the quality of the experience derived by park visitors, and for valuable contributions to the state park field made through the National Conference on State parks.”
Morse was born in Romford, England, and came to the United States at the age of five. After living first in the west and then in Florida, the family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. Morse became interested in landscape architecture due in part to his father's interest in landscape gardening and estate management.
He graduated from Pennsylvania State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape architecture. He was employed as a works project supervisor with the federal Emergency Relief Administration before joining the North Carolina Conservation Department in the 1930s. He became the first North Carolina State Parks Superintendent in 1935, a position he held until 1961, except for a period during World War II when he served in the US Navy from 1944-45.
The state parks were a stepchild of the State Forestry Division when Morse was appointed parks chief. Subsequently, the Parks Division became a separate arm of the State Department of Conservation and Development. Morse is considered by many to be the "father" of North Carolina's State Park system. During his tenure, the system expanded from two to 12 state parks. Under his leadership, the system became one of the nation's most professional systems, and his standing was recognized when he was elected by his peers on two occasions to be president of the national association of state park directors. The expansion and reputation of the system occurred despite the state providing funds to acquire only one park site (Mount Mitchell), although some state resources were provided to acquire additional tracts to add to parks that had been donated to the state.
One of the two parks Morse inherited when he became Superintendent was the man-and-nature battered Cape Hatteras. It was practically inaccessible, but was nevertheless the pride of the infant system. CCC workers were beginning the famous beach grass-planting operation that was to rescue the North Carolina Outer Banks, and became a model and prototype for beach erosion control.
In the post war period, the state legislature responded to the boom in travel to parks by substantially increasing appropriations so between 1947 and 1949 permanent state park employees increased from 17 to 34. However, the legislature did not authorize a commensurate expansion of the state park system or facilitates within state parks.
Morse fought against encroachment into the parks. For example, when a telephone company campaigned to construct a microwave tower on the crest of Mount Jefferson State Park, he protested, and prevailed even though the company brought strong political pressure to bear. By the end of his tenure, annual visitation to state parks exceeded 1.5 million visitors but Morse frequently observed that the system had not expanded enough to meet the needs of North Carolina's residents: "My greatest disappointment has been the failure of the State to expand the system fast enough to meet the needs of its citizens."
After retiring from the Superintendent's position, Morse moved to the National Park Service to become special assistant to the regional chief of recreation resource planning and state assistance based in Richmond. In this role, he became a traveling missionary for park development in the region's twelve southeastern states, but he was able to be especially effective on the Outer Banks of North Carolina because of his long familiarity with that environment. The NPS's Mission 66 program was in effect, which was making a major effort to acquire some of the nation's last remaining natural areas. It was especially interested in acquiring some of the Outer Banks coastal areas since they were among the few remaining unspoiled beaches on the Eastern Seaboard.
When Cape Hatteras became part of the NPS system, Morse's career completed a full circle. He had been intimately involved with it when he started in 1935 and in 1965 he was appointed by the NPS as assistant superintendent of Capt Hatteras National Seashore. Subsequently, he became superintendent from 1967-69 of the newly authorized Cape Lookout National Seashore, which is located south of Cape Hatteras.