Former USFWS Director Lynn Adams Greenwalt dies

Former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Lynn Adams Greenwalt died March 20 at 94 years old. Greenwalt served as director from 1973 to 1980.

With a passion for wildlife since he was young, Greenwalt studied zoology at the University of Oklahoma for his bachelor’s degree and earned a master’s in wildlife management from the University of Arizona.

After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, Greenwalt earned a permanent job with the USFWS as refuge manager at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. He subsequently served as manager at Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico and later Fish Springs NWR in western Utah.

Greenwalt was soon promoted to refuge supervisor at the Albuquerque regional office and later the associate regional supervisor for the refuge system. He then climbed the ladder to become the chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System in Washington, D.C.

When Greenwalt was 42, he became the director of the USFWS. In this position, he helped implement the new Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). He also oversaw the 54-million-acre expansion of the National Wildlife Refuge System as a result of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

After his term at the USFWS ended, Greenwalt worked for the National Wildlife Federation for 13 years.

Read Greenwalt’s full obituary at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.