What would people be most surprised to know about being a ranger?
Probably the range of opportunity there is in the career. Park rangers have such a wide variety of choices to explore within the job category. The full spectrum is limitless.
What's the best part about what you do?
I suppose it is — as I approach 94 years in my 10th decade — I remain contemporary because of my work and its relevance to today.
The worst?
Having my wrinkles filmed in HD-TV.
What is the most memorable things you've experienced on the job?
Among the many tributes and honors I've received, two stand out as stunning: receiving the Fannie Lou Hamer Award from the graduating black students class at the University of California a few years ago at their commencement ceremony, and last year receiving a hand-crafted 12-inch-tall crystal cube in which a welder's tool is suspended from today's Boilermakers Union for my work for the all-black auxiliary created under a Jim Crow segregated local — by way of apology for those years of separation.
As the only still-living member of staff I accepted in their names. That was special. There have been so many such moments, like having the chance to visit the airfield where the Tuskegee Airmen were trained at Tuskegee University to deliver the Women's Equality Day speech last fall.