Kevin FitzGerald, deputy superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park since 2006, retired this month after 34 years with the National Park Service.

While stationed at park headquarters on the Tennessee side of the park, he and his wife plan to eventually live in Western North Carolina now that he has retired.

FitzGerald began his career with the National Park Service as a seasonal fee collector on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then he worked for the Park service in the Everglades, Maryland, Cape Cod, and Colorado before returning to the Great Smoky Mountains.

While at the Smokies FitzGerald played a key role in guiding the largest infrastructure improvement program in the park since the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps, overseeing $80 million in stimulus projects.