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The
New Rosie Park Superintendent Martha Lee
Martha Lee is a 25-year veteran of the
NPS and superintendent of four NPS
historical areas in California: John Muir
NHS, Rosie the Riveter/World War II
Home Front NHP, Port Chicago
Memorial, and Eugene O’Neill NHS.
Prior to this appointment, she served as
acting superintendent at Pinnacles
National Monument and as the Hetch
Hetchy program manager at Yosemite
National Park, coordinating NPS
responsibilities with the city and county
of San Francisco for the Tuolumne
River watershed and the
O'Shaughnessy Dam.
While at
Yosemite, she worked on two
significant planning efforts, the
Yosemite Valley Plan and the Merced
Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive
Management Plan. She has a long
history of working with park partners,
and for several years she served as the
park’s editor-in-chief. Lee was on the
staff of the Yosemite Museum for
twelve years, where she co-authored
Traditions and Innovation: A Basket
History of the Indians of the Yosemite-
Mono Lake Region, a book of the
history of Native people and their
baskets in the Yosemite area.
Lee has
completed the NPS Executive
Leadership Training Program with
long-term details in the Office of
Budget in the Washington, D.C. office
of the NPS and with the California
Resources Agency.
She has a BA from
Stanford University.
Visit the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park website at http://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm
Fri, Feb. 18, 2005
Rosie park gets interim
overseer
By Martin Snapp, CONTRA
COSTA TIMES
In
the wake of the retirement of Judy Hart, the superintendent
who guided the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home
Front National Historical Park in Richmond through
its first four years of existence, the National Park
Service has appointed an interim superintendent who's
more than a mere caretaker.
"There's
no time to wait," said Howard Levitt, who is
taking a break from his regular job as chief of interpretation
and education at the Golden Gate National Recreation
Area for the next four or five months to guide the
Rosie park. "Too many things are happening right
now."
For
instance, after protracted negotiations, the long-abandoned
Ford Assembly Building, which in its heyday built
49,000 jeeps and prepared 90,000 tanks for shipment
overseas, has been bought by a new owner.
"This
finally gives us somebody we can talk to. Now we can
go ahead with our plans to put our permanent visitors
center in the Ford Building. There's a good chance
it'll be open by 2007."
Next
month, the S.S.
Red Oak Victory, one of the 747 ships built at
the Kaiser shipyards during the war, will be moved
to Shipyard No. 3. The month after that, it will be
joined by one of the shipyard's huge "Whirly
Cranes."
Work
is going ahead on the park's master
plan, which will govern its development over the
next 20 years. Under Hart's direction, four different
visions were widely disseminated last fall through
public meetings, mass mailings and the media. Levitt
is working hard to keep the momentum going.
"The
public responded with a lot of suggestions, which
we're integrating into the master plan," he said.
"We're combining the best features from each
vision. We hope to have a draft plan within the next
three months."
But
the most compelling reason for urgency is that the
Rosies themselves are now in their 80s and 90s.
"We
know we won't have them with us forever, so it's urgent
to get their stories now, while we still can,"
he said. "This park is about more than the buildings.
It's about the lives of the people who worked here
and the sacrifices they made."
To
this end, the park will become a high-tech resource
center, working with colleges, universities, museums
and other institutions that have part of the Rosie
story to tell.
So
was Rosie a real person? Yes and no. She first appeared
as a fictional character in the 1942 song, "Rosie
the Riveter," recorded by bandleader Kay Kyser:
"All
the day long/Whether rain or shine/She's part of the
assembly line/She's making history/Working for victory/Rosie
the Riveter."
A
few months later, her real-life counterpart was discovered
when movie star Walter Pigeon made a promotional tour
of the Ford Motor plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., and met
a riveter on the production line named Rose Will Monroe.
She was soon starring as herself in government films
promoting the war effort.
Then
Norman Rockwell got into the act with a 1943 "Saturday
Evening Post" cover featuring Rosie the way we
picture her today, with rolled up sleeves, can-do
attitude and polka-dot bandanna, the official headgear
of the Women Ordinance Workers.
By
that time, Rosie had become the symbol for everyone
working on the home front -- women and men alike.
"Most people don't realize that women constituted
only about a quarter of the work force," Levitt
said.
More
than 9,000 home-front workers have already contacted
the park. Two thousand have shared their stories,
either in writing or on tape. Another 2,000 have donated
priceless artifacts, from welding masks to ration
books.
"They
left their roots in the South or the Midwest, put
down new roots here, and reinvented themselves as
Californians," Levitt said. "Most came to
better their lives economically, but I think they
found much more than that: They found that they could
overcome their different backgrounds and work together
for the common good. And that's an important lesson
for our own time."
Reach
Martin Snapp at 510-262-2787 or msnapp@cctimes.com.
Fri, Jan. 21, 2005
Rosie
the Riveter park superintendent to retire
By
Martin Snapp, CONTRA
COSTA TIMES
It's
the end of one era and the beginning of another: Judy
Hart, superintendent of the Rosie the Riveter/World
War II Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond
since its founding in 2001, will retire Feb. 3, 2005.
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Judy
Hart with Capt. Nolan of the Red Oak Victory
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There's
no policy dispute or personality conflict. "I'm
just worn out," says Hart, who plans to move
to Santa Fe, N.M.
The
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National
Historic Park is unique: Unlike other parks, the National
Park Service does not own the major buildings, such
as the Ford plant, the Kaiser hospital, and Shipyard
#3. They are the property of two separate governmental
entities -- the City of Richmond and Contra Costa
County -- and private owners.
"Trying
to get everyone on the same page has been a superhuman
task; but Judy, with her tact and vision, somehow
managed to accomplish it," says Contra Costa
County Supervisor John Gioia, a board member of the
Rosie the Riveter Trust.
"She
had two advantages coming in," says Betty Reid
Soskin of Richmond, a Rosie who worked in the union
hall at the Kaiser shipyard during the war.
"First,
she came in with an outsider's perspective that we
badly needed. Here on the West Coast we have no sense
of history, and we tear down things that they revere
back East. She halted that destruction.
"Second,
she understood that the real story isn't the buildings;
it's the people. And that's reflected in not only
all the oral histories she's been collecting, but
in all the trail markers that tell the stories of
the people who worked here."
Many
Rosies credit Hart for helping them gain a new sense
of themselves.
"We
never thought we were anything special," says
Marianne Sousa of El Sobrante, who worked in Shipyard
#2. "We were just 18- and 19-year-old kids doing
what we could to get the war over as soon as possible.
But now that we have our own national park, we're
starting to think maybe what we did was special."
After
years of urging by local officials, most notably Richmond
Councilwoman Donna Powers, Congress authorized the
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National
Historic Park in October of 2000. Hart was sent out
from Washington the following January to make it a
reality.
She
was already a veteran of several significant projects,
including the Manzanar National Historic Site, the
site of a World War II internment camp for Japanese
Americans, and the Boston African American National
Historic Site, the site of the first freed African
American community in the country.
She
was also founding superintendent of the Women's Rights
National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, NY, not only
suggesting the idea but also working on the study,
drafting the legislation, and guiding the park through
its first six years of existence.
On
June 5, 2004, the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home
Front National Historic Park held the ribbon-cutting
for the visitor center in Richmond City Hall. Guests
of honor: scores of Rosies from all over the Bay Area
and beyond.
Over
the last four years, more than 9,000 Rosies have shared
their stories with the park. More than 100 have videotaped
oral histories, and more than 2,000 have written their
memoirs, in one case 55 typed pages long. Another
2,000 have donated mementos that had been treasured
for more than 50 years.
One
Rosie donated a work shirt with all of her teammates'
signatures, with each name embroidered over by
different colors of thread.
Another
donated the statue of a Rosie she made, holding a
child and the hand of a toddler, going off to leave
her children with a worried look on her face.
Two
Rosies donated the tests that allowed them to get
their riveting jobs: placing a rivet on each intersection
of a crosshatch on a piece of metal.
Today,
the park includes the Rosie the Riveter Memorial sculpture,
the Ford Assembly Building, Kaiser Shipyard #3, and
the Red Oak Victory Liberty Ship.
Still
to come: the opening of the permanent visitors' center
in the Ford plant in 2009, acquisition of a luxury
cruise ship as a floating hotel, and other major events
stretching over the next 20 years.
The
rest of the park's future is still up in the air --
partly due to uncertainty about future federal funding,
partly because the park is developing a new master
plan, with four very different scenarios being considered.
For several months it has been holding public meetings
to solicit local input.
Hart
predicts the final plan will be a compromise, combining
the best features from each scenario. More information
about the scenarios can be downloaded from the park's
Web site, www.nps.gov/rori/.
"My
biggest regret is missing those ribbon cuttings,"
says Hart. "But since we're about to move to
a new stage, it's a good time to leave and let my
successor get in on the ground floor."
That
successor has not been named yet, but all agree Hart
will be a hard act to follow.
"When
I think of what Judy has accomplished, I think of
an iceberg," says Richmond Councilman Tom Butt.
"There's not much visible above the water, but
there's a whole lot underneath. She's built the foundation;
now it's time for the rest of us to step up to the
plate."
Reach Martin Snapp at 510-262-2787
or e-mail msnapp@cctimes.com.
 Judy
Hart is the first superintendent of Rosie the Riveter
World War II Home Front National Historical
Park. The legislation creating the new national
park was signed by President Clinton October 24, 2000,
and Ms. Hart began as superintendent January
15, 2001.
Her
career in the Park service spans 26 years. Most recently,
Hart was the first National program Coordinator
for the National Heritage areas, which
are partnership areas privately owned and managed
in cooperation with the National park service.
Previous to that, Ms. Hart developed the Conservation
Study institute, now operated in partnership with
the University of Vermont and the new Marsh-Billings
National historical Park n Woodstock, Vermont.
Ms.
Hart served in the Washington Office of Legislation
for six years, supporting the creation
of Petroglyphs National Monument, Marsh-Billings
National Historical Park, the Mary McLeod Bethune
National Historical Site and the Manzanar
National Historical Site, as well as many other park
units.
Ms.
Hart was first superintendent of the Women's Rights
National historical Park in Seneca Falls,
New York, after suggesting the idea, working on the
study and working on the legislation. Prior to that,
Ms. Hart worked on park legislation out
of the Regional Office in Boston, Massachusetts.
Prior
to her career with the Park service, Ms. Hart worked
for the Boston Redevelopment Authority,
City of Boston, and for the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, as Director of the Bureau of Relocation.
She also worked for the Federal Highway
Administration on Environmental Impact Statement
reviews.
She
began her work career in publishing at Little, Brown
& Company, and as a company newsletter
editor for the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Company.
Her
undergraduate degree is in English Literature from
Cornell University, and she has a Master
of Arts in Law from Goddard College in Vermont.
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