Richard West Sellars

RICHARD WEST SELLARS Historian Richard West Sellars died quietly at his home in Santa Fe on November 1, 2017, after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Born in Decatur, TX, in 1935, he was the son of wildcatter oilman Robert Thompson Sellars, Sr. and schoolteacher Johnnie Mae Blankenship Sellars and grew up knowing the security of a multigenerational network of relatives and friends in that small town. He left there to attend Baylor University, graduating with a degree in geology in 1957. After a few years as an independent oilman in Jackson, MS, he realized that his interests actually lay more in history, geography, and literature. He furthered his education in these fields at North Texas State University and the University of Missouri--Columbia, earning a Ph.D in Western History in 1972. Although his goal had originally been to teach on the college level, he immediately found employment with the National Park Service upon receiving his degree. Soon he wholeheartedly embraced a career that afforded not only intellectual analysis of National Park Service historical and natural park units, but also interesting travel; he visited at least 350 of these sites. From 1979 to 1988 he headed the Southwest Cultural Resources Center in Santa Fe, overseeing programs in history, archaeology, and historic architecture for the Southwest Region and Servicewide programs in submerged cultural resources. He served as acting superintendent at Pea Ridge National Military Park and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. He also was a consultant with the Dallas County Historical Foundation on preservation and interpretation of the Texas School Book Depository and Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX, site of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in planning today's Sixth Floor Museum. But it was in writing and lecturing that he found the greatest satisfaction. His articles on American history and cultural and natural resource preservation appeared in numerous publications, and he frequently taught courses on preservation philosophy, policy, and practice and historic preservation at National Park Service training centers and various universities. He is best known as the author of Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History, published in 1997 by Yale University Press and the chief catalyst for a major initiative by the National Park Service to revitalize natural resource management in the parks. After his retirement in 2008, he worked on a history of cultural resources management in the National Park Service, which remains unfinished. His achievements were recognized by the National Park Service and related organizations with the Eastern National Authors Award in 1997, the George P. Hartzog award and the U.S. Department of the Interior Meritorious Service Award in 2008, and the George Melendez Wright Award for Excellence in 2011. He will be remembered for his unwavering commitment to preservation principles and devotion to the National Park Service. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Robert Thompson Sellars, Jr. Surviving members of his family include his sister, Sally Florian and her husband James, sister-in-law Sharon Sellars, cousin Ben Man and his wife Kareen, in-laws Robert and Alice Stevenson, nieces Amanda Callinan, Melinda ("Tenna") Florian, Kathryn Sellars, nephews Jason Florian and Trevor Stevenson, three great nieces, and his wife of forty years, Judith Stevenson Sellars. The family wishes to thank caregiver, Glory Samlal for her superb care during Dick's final month and PMS Hospice for their compassionate and competent efforts. There will be no funeral, but a memorial service will be held in early 2018, and his ashes will be buried in the Sellars family plot in Decatur, TX at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please direct any memorial donations to the George Wright Society, P.O. Box 65, Hancock, MI 49930-0065; Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), 962 Wayne Avenue, Suite 610, Silver Spring, MD 20910; or The Food Depot, 1222A Siler Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507-4107.