Robert Sterling Yard

Robert Sterling Yard (1861–1945) was an American journalist and conservationist. After years as a newspaperman and magazine editor in New York, he was brought to Washington in 1915 by his friend Stephen Mather to publicize the national parks, and as chief of the educational division of the new National Park Service he wrote The National Parks Portfolio and The Book of the National Parks. In 1919 he founded the National Parks Association to defend the parks from commercial use, and in 1935 he was a founder and the first president of the Wilderness Society.