YOSEMITE – Just days after Don Neubacher, Superintendent of Yosemite National Park, announced his retirement in the wake of harassment allegations by park employees, his wife Patty Neubacher announced that she too would be leaving her position.
Patty Neubacher is Deputy Regional Director for the National Park Service’s Pacific West Region, responsible for 56 national parks. She announced her intention to retire in an email to colleagues, addressing them as her “Fellow Travelers.”
“With much sadness but with a heart full of gratitude, I wanted to let you know that I will be retiring on November 1st. This is not the timing that I’d ever envisioned for retiring, but sometimes life takes an abrupt turn. From the moment I arrived as a summer intern from my MBA program, I have appreciated your support, your patience, your kindness, your intelligence, and, perhaps most importantly, your good humor. I’ve accumulated a lifetime of wonderful memories working with you and I am forever grateful.”
According to the L.A. Times, Patty Neubacher has “come under scrutiny in recent months as the Interior Department and Congress investigated widespread allegations of bullying, intimidation and harassment of employees throughout the national park system, where employees and former employees had complained of a systemic failure to investigate and address allegations of harassment at the iconic California landmark. Some employees alleged that Patty Neubacher had used her position to protect the superintendent.”
Woody Smeck – NPS photo
Beginning in mid-October, Woody Smeck, superintendent of Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, will step in as acting superintendent of Yosemite National Park.
To read the entire L.A. Times story, click here.
