New park service region leader a student of history
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Keith Newlin, now deputy superintendent for the Western Pennsylvania region of the National Park Service, will replace current superintendent Joanne Hanley.
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Starting next month, Keith Newlin will oversee historic sites as old as the American Revolution and as new as the field where Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Mr. Newlin, now deputy superintendent for the Western Pennsylvania region of the National Park Service, will succeed current superintendent Joanne Hanley, who for nearly a decade supervised the development of a memorial at the crash site of Flight 93, scheduled to open this September. Ms. Hanley will leave her position Feb. 1 to head the Gettysburg Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
Mr. Newlin, 53, a native of Perry County in central Pennsylvania, has worked for the National Park Service for 30 years. He grew up about 40 miles north of Gettysburg and became involved with the park service as a member of the Youth Conservation Corps and through seasonal work at the Gettysburg battlefield.
"My passion is history, so I ended up in the right agency," Mr. Newlin said.
After graduating from Shippensburg University with a bachelor's degree in history, Mr. Newlin joined the park service full time and was sent to sites in Maryland, Alaska, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Through his work on such sites as the National Mall, the Korean War Memorial and the birthplace of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Newlin has pursued a lifelong interest in U.S. history.
"I really enjoy the nuts and bolts of how this country came about," he said. "There are a lot of things in history that people don't recognize, and that's what we have to tell people."
As superintendent, Mr. Newlin will oversee Western Pennsylvania's five national parks: Friendship Hill National Historic Site in Point Marion, Fayette County; Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington, Fayette County; Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site in Blair and Cambria counties; Johnstown Flood National Memorial in Cambria County; and Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Somerset County.
First Published January 18, 2011 12:00 am
