Guide to the William Penn Mott, Jr. Papers

This finding aid describes the William Penn Mott, Jr. Papers, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.

William Penn Mott, Jr. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 1607)

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 1645 (Series I.A.12)

Creator: Mott, William Penn, Jr. (1909-1992)

Title: William Penn Mott, Jr. Papers

Dates: 1968-1992 (bulk dates: 1981-1988)

Extent: 2.4 LF

Language of Materials: English

Digitized Copies: This collection has not been digitized.

Conditions Governing Access: This collection is open to research use.

Conditions Governing Use and Reproduction: Some of the reports and other reference materials in this collection were not produced by the NPS and may not be in the public domain. See https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en. See also the NPS general copyright & restrictions information.

Provenance: This collection was assembled from copies of documents sent by the NPS Washington Office and materials found in the NPS History Collection prior to 2010.

Processing Note: This collection was processed by Emily L. Richardson in 2017. Some materials had been previously processed by History Associates, Incorporated. The finding aid was updated for the internet by Eleanore Kohorn in November 2025.

Rights Statements for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.

Preferred Citation: William Penn Mott, Jr. Papers, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1645)

Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Materials:

• Assembled Historic Records of the National Park Service (HFCA 1645), NPS History Collection
• National Park Service Oral History Collection (HFCA 1817), NPS History Collection
• Records of NPS Directors, National Archives and Records Administration (RG 79.3.2)
• William Mott Penn’s desk set is part of the NPS History Collection

Biographical Note

William Penn Mott, Jr. was born on October 19, 1909, in New York City, New York. He moved to Jonesville, Michigan, in 1925, where his interest in nature blossomed. This passion led him to dedicate his life to the preservation of the nation’s natural resources. Mott earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Michigan State University in 1931, and a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkley. He married his wife Ruth in 1934 and the couple settled in the San Francisco, California area.

Mott began his NPS career as a landscape architect at the NPS Western Regional Office in 1933. In this role, he served as supervisor of landscaping projects of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). The constant travel required for this position left him with little time to spend with his family. In 1940 Mott left the NPS to start his own landscaping business, which allowed him to spend more time at home.

His work was highly regarded and led to his appointment as superintendent of parks for the City of Oakland in 1946. Over the next seventeen years, Mott helped reshape the city’s parks. He earned the respect of his staff through his open management style. In 1962 he was named general manager of the East Bay Regional Park District in San Francisco. During his tenure he more than doubled the land allocated for parks, increased the number of parks from five to twenty-five, and attracted more than triple the number of visitors to the city’s parks.

Governor Ronald Reagan appointed him as director of California’s Department of Parks and Recreation in 1967. Mott added an additional 154,000 acres to California’s 800,000 acres of state park system. His work led to the addition of 24 new areas to the state system, some of which were added after he left the position in 1974. After his departure, Mott continued his efforts to improve the parks of California. He served as general manager of the East Bay Zoological Society (overseeing the Oakland Zoo) and as president of the California State Park Foundation, a non-profit organization he founded in 1969.

Following his election as president of the United States, Reagan turned to his former appointee, appointing Mott the 12th director of the NPS in 1985. During this tenure, he introduced his “Twelve Point Plan,” to: protect the parks, better serve the public, and generally improve the management of the NPS. Points of his plan included developing long-term strategic plans; encouraging public interest in the interpretation programs of the parks; advancing the understanding of the functions of the NPS; improving facilities at parks; and developing better relationships between the parks and concessioners.

Mott served as NPS director until April 1989 when President George H. W. Bush replaced him with James Ridenour. However, he continued to work with the NPS as a special assistant for the director of the Western Region, overseeing the transition of the Presidio in San Francisco from a military unit to an NPS unit. Mott died from pneumonia in 1992.

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• Yosemite National Park

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