Bob Love Named Superintendent Of Tumacácori

Date: July 10, 2012
Contact: Patricia Turley, 303-969-2701

NPS photo

Bob Love, a 32-year veteran of the National Park Service, has been named superintendent of Tumacácori National Historical Park in southern Arizona. Love is currently the chief ranger at Saguaro National Park in Arizona and assumes his new duties on August 27th. He succeeds Lisa Carrico, who is now superintendent of Great Sands Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado.

"Bob's deep level of professionalism and his strong commitment and dedication to the NPS mission make him the ideal person for this position," said Intermountain Region Director John Wessels, who announced Love's appointment. "Bob brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his new position, and will provide solid leadership to the park and the local communities."

Love served as chief ranger at Saguaro since November 2002. From January through mid-April, 2012, he also served as acting superintendent for the NPS's Southeast Arizona Group (Coronado National Memorial, Chiricahua National Monument, and Fort Bowie National Historic Site). He began his NPS career as a seasonal ranger at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in California. Since then, Love has worked in the NPS's former Western Region Office in San Francisco, and at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and at Saguaro National Monument before it was re-designated a national park in 1994.

"I am honored and grateful to have been selected to lead our efforts at Tumacácori," Love said. "The park's three mission sites are intriguing, and their stories very much interwoven in the area's communities and landscape. Although I have lived in southern Arizona for nearly 10 years, I am eager to explore and learn more about the Santa Cruz Valley's rich cultural and natural heritage. I look forward to working with our partners and constituents there."

Love earned a bachelor's degree in park and recreation management at California State University, Chico. He was born and raised in Southern California. He and his wife, Stacey, have two sons - Matthew, 20, and Daniel, 12. 

As superintendent at Tumacácori, Love will oversee a staff of 14 and a park with a combined 356 acres of land among its three locations. The park's annual operating budget is more than $1.3 million. The park protects the ruins of Tumacácori, Calabazas, and Guevavi, three Spanish Colonial missions that were part of a network of more than 20 outposts established by the Spanish in northern Mexico and southern Arizona from the late 1600s to the mid-1700s.