Bob Schuster, Glacier Park ranger, in his 50th year

Bob Schuster is celebrating his 50th summer as an interpretive ranger at Glacier National Park.

Schuster was born in Wisconsin, and stayed there through college, where he studied biology. In 1965, he moved to Oregon, where he attended Oregon State University for graduate school, studying fisheries and wildlife.

He became a ranger purely by chance. He happened to come across a government career day, where he met a park ranger from Crater Lake.

“In those days, each individual park did their hiring. I applied for everything in the West, and Glacier was the first to call me back,” Schuster said. He started at the park in 1967.

Schuster spent the summer of 1971 in West Glacier and the summer of ‘77 in Two Medicine, but the rest of his time at the Park has been spent at Many Glacier. His season starts on June 4 and finishes on Sept. 17.

Schuster taught high school biology in the off season until his retirement in 2006.

Having been with the Park for half a century, Schuster has seen plenty of change come to Glacier.

“Visitors have doubled,” he said. “It was about three years ago that you started to notice it really filling up.”

Beyond the visitor count, ecological changes also stand out in Schuster’s mind.

The disappearing glaciers are foremost.

“When I first came out here, we went out onto the glacier with tours. We don’t do that anymore, but there’s places that I took people on the (Grinnell) Glacier that are lakes now,” he said.

Interaction is Schuster’s favorite part of the job.

“I like meeting with people, explaining things, helping them appreciate and understand the Park,” Schuster said. “You meet so many people, and helping them discover the park is great.”

Schuster also values his ability to educate.

“I do an evening program on bears, and that’s important because we do have incidents and it’s important to educate people,” he said. Being able to share the Park with others has kept Schuster coming back.

“I’ve had the opportunity to show people grizzlies in person. It’s not the same as a zoo,” he said. “You can see the excitement in their faces.”

Schuster has no plans to retire.

“There’s two all-day hikes that I lead, and so far I can still do it, so no, I don’t plan on it,” he said.