ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine — After having held the position for more than 12 years, Sheridan Steele plans to retire as superintendent of Acadia National Park this fall.
Steele, who was appointed superintendent of Maine’s only national park in 2003, is on vacation in Norway this month and was unavailable Tuesday for comment, according to Deputy Superintendent Michael Madell. But Madell confirmed Steele has announced his intentions to retire this year.
“It will be sometime this fall,” Madell said Tuesday.
During Steele’s 12 years as superintendent, the park completed or partnered in several major development initiatives, including the conversion of a former Navy base at Schoodic Point into the park’s Schoodic Education & Research Center and the establishment of the first phase of the Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton.
He also had to contend with delayed openings of several park facilities in the spring of 2013 because of federal sequestration and, that fall, a 16-day closure of the park during the federal government shutdown.
In the late 2000s, Steele vigorously opposed a proposal to build a large “eco-resort” on a 3,200-acre undeveloped property next to Acadia on the Schoodic Peninsula that, he said at the time, would have had a “tremendous impact” on the park. In 2011, Steele strongly supported the sale of the land to Lyme Timber Company of Hanover, New Hampshire, saying he was “thrilled” by the deal and happy that the timber company pledged to manage the property in a way that is consistent with the area’s rural and relatively undeveloped character.
A new campground and a network of hiking and biking trails connecting the Lyme Timber property to Acadia are expected to be formally opened to the public early next month.
In a prepared statement released last week, officials at Schoodic Institute, which manages the education and research center at Schoodic Point, gave credit to Steele for his “leadership and clear vision” in helping to shape the changes at Schoodic and yet protecting the area’s quiet atmosphere.
“He saw the importance of the Schoodic District to Acadia National Park, the need to protect adjacent lands from development, its future as a location for education and research, and its value as an addition to the visitor experience in Acadia National Park as a whole,” Mark Berry, president and CEO of the institute, wrote in the statement.
Following his retirement, Steele will continue to pursue various projects connected to the Schoodic District, Berry added, without going into specifics. The institute plans to hold a retirement celebration for Steele in Bar Harbor on Labor Day, Sept. 7.
Before coming to Acadia, Steele served as superintendent of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area in Colorado. During his 37-year career with the National Park Service, he also worked at Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area in Ohio; at Fort Scott National Historic Site in Fort Scott, Kansas; and as assistant superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
Steele’s pending retirement is the latest in a series of recent higher-level retirements by Acadia officials.
Len Bobinchock, who served for 25 years as deputy superintendent of Acadia, retired last year. Longtime Ranger Richard Rechholtz, a Bar Harbor native who frequently served as a media liaison for emergencies in the park, retired this past spring.
According to Madell, Acadia is considered a destination appointment for many park service employees, not a place to work while aspiring to get a job somewhere else. When park staff leave their jobs at Acadia, he said, it often is so they can enjoy the park as retired local residents.
“Acadia is one of those parks that people get to and stay at for a long time,” Madell said.
