Miner
Raymond TillotsonMiner
Raymond TillotsonMinor “Tillie” Raymond Tillotson (1886-1955) received the Pugsley Silver Medal in 1948. He was born in Vermillion County, Indiana, in 1886 and received his early education in Lebanon. He was a student at Northwestern University in 1904-1905 and received his B.S. in civil engineering from Purdue University in 1908. He married Winifred Shawcross in July 1909.
Tillotson had a distinguished career in both the Forest Service and the National Park Service investing almost all of his adult life in the service of these two agencies concerned with the conservation of natural resources. He joined the US Forest Service immediately after graduating from Purdue, and was given important assignments in the West. He rose rapidly to the position of supervisor of the Shasta National Forest in northern California and was later transferred to a position of equal authority and responsibility as supervisor of the Cleveland National Forest. He resigned from the Forest Service in 1919 to become a construction engineer for the Standard Oil Company, but late in 1921 he joined the NPS as an engineer on a major construction project in Yosemite National Park. He took this job because doctors had advised that his son had to be taken to a high altitude and dry climate.
Early in 1922 he was appointed resident engineer of Grand Canyon National Park, a position he held until he was made superintendent of Grand Canyon in 1927. As resident engineer, he supervised the construction of several major sanitation, road and trail, and bridge projects. His career as superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park was outstanding from the standpoint of the efficiency with which he administered the affairs of one of the most important areas of the NPS. For example, during his superintendency the new park headquarters was build, the West Rim Drive was relocated, the cross canyon Kaibab Trail was completed, the village housing and hospital were built.
Tillotson was also widely admired for his public relations efforts, including extensive articles about the park that appeared in numerous publications. In one article he said:
One is numbed by the spectacle. It cannot be comprehended. There is no measure. Hours and sometimes days are required to adjust one’s self properly to the vastness. Even then one never becomes wholly adjusted, for with dawning appreciation comes growing wonder. Comprehension always lies beyond reach. Futile indeed is any attempt to picture or describe the entire scene. Some rare artists have with brush or pen been able to portray with some measure of success phases or fleeting glimpses of the Grand Canyon, but it is a sight one must see for one’s self. Even then one is tempted to doubt the reality of it all.
In January 1939, he became regional director of Region One, headquartered at Richmond, Virginia, and remained there until 1940 when he was transferred to his beloved Southwest as regional director of Region Three at Sante Fe where he served until his death in 1955.
Tillotson was chairman of the United States Commission appointed by the State Department to meet with the Mexican Commission to formulate plans and policies for the development of international parks, forest reserves and wildlife refuges along the boundary of the United States and Mexico, and was actively engaged in the work of this commission when he became fatally ill.
Tillotson was co-author, with F. J. Taylor, of Grand Canyon Country, a book published in 1929 by the Stanford University Press which was reprinted many times until 1952. For many years, this book was regarded as indispensable to people who wanted to fully enjoy a visit to northern Arizona and especially Grand Canyon.
George Hartzog, a director of the NPS, described Tillotson as “small, wiry, leathery of face, in cowboy boots topped off with a ten-gallon, roll-sided Stetson, he epitomized the self-reliant, can-do rangers and superintendents whose selfless service created the legends of the NPS.” George Collins another long time NPS leader recalled: “He had a considerable imagination, rare humor, loved to laugh. He spoke well. He was a feisty little devil, quick-tempered, but very loyal and very intelligent. You could go to him any time about any problem, any question, and he would just turn everything upside down to help you get the answer. He was that kind of a guy – an excellent leader. He had almost no enemies, which was an accomplishment for a superintendent at Grand Canyon who often had to make decisions some constituents didn’t like. His staff revered him: He used to refer to us as ‘those no-good darn rangers of mine,’ but let anyone else say anything and he was right up on the bit. He’d fight for you.”