Through nearly four decades, Dale Engquist was a leader in preserving Northwest Indiana’s natural environment and helping people enjoy it.
The second superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Engquist, 77, died Sunday in Michigan City. He held that job for 24 years before retiring in February 2007.
“He basically put this park together,” said Paul Labovitz, the national park’s current superintendent.
He was an active board member of two Northwest Indiana environmental organizations – Save the Dunes and Shirley Heinze Land Trust — during his 10 years of retirement.
“He really did what he wanted,” said Jo Ann Engquist, his wife. “How many people can make a living at something you thoroughly enjoy?”
Northwest Indiana’s national park didn’t exist when Engquist was growing up on Chicago’s West Side. When he thought of national parks, places like Yellowstone or Grand Canyon came to mind. When he wanted solitude, he walked to the Garfield Park Conservatory.
After earning a master’s degree in botany at the University of Illinois, he planned to work toward a doctorate at the University of California. A summer at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota derailed that plan.
“It was supposed to be a summer job, but I liked it so much I never went to California,” Engquist told a Post-Tribune reporter in 2006. “I really liked working there and decided I didn’t want to be a professor.”
His botany background served him when he came to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, one of the National Park Service’s most biologically diverse parks.
Created by Congress in 1966 and expanded four times since then, the park was still developing when Engquist arrived as its assistant superintendent in 1978. “He was absolutely thrilled, because of the Chicago connection,” Jo Ann Engquist said, noting Illinois Sen. Paul Douglas’ role in creating the park.
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Five years later, he became the park’s superintendent.
Charlotte Read headed the Save the Dunes Council (now Save the Dunes) for most of the time Engquist was superintendent. The organization had pushed locally and in Washington, D.C., to create the park.
“We had our differences, but on the whole I think he did a very good job,” Read, now retired, said this week. “He played a major role in the park’s success, and he was very committed to natural areas preservation.
“I only hope there are more like him in the National Park Service.”
In its early years, the park had an advisory committee of citizens from communities in and near the park, many with “very diverse opinions” about the park, as Read said. But Engquist patiently attended and participated in all the meetings.
“He was the public face of the Lakeshore,” she said. “So he was out there all the time, getting praises and getting complaints. It was 30 years of challenges.”
Labovitz, the park’s current superintendent, had worked at other Midwest parks in the National Park Service and had known Engquist for more than 20 years before coming here.
“I’m kind of shaken up by it,” he said of Engquist’s passing. “I can’t even believe that I have the same job he did.
“He was the big guy here, but he was very approachable. He seemed to have a handle on everything that was going on.”
Bob Daum, who retired last year after 33 years at the national park, was chief of resource management during much of Engquist’s time as superintendent.
“Dale was a very thoughtful person,” Daum said. “He would ask good questions and get good information, and that led to him making very good decisions.
“He was very inclusive, not only of the workers but also of the community.”
Engquist’s priorities included stewardship of the park’s natural and cultural resources, encouraging environmental education and developing visitor access.
“He had a passion for environmental education,” Daum said. That included starting the Douglas Center for Environmental Education, in Gary, and helping to form the Dunes Learning Center, in Porter.
Engquist’s commitment to the region continued in his retirement with volunteer work for Shirley Heinze Land Trust and Save the Dunes.
“With his leadership and organizational skills, he really transformed Shirley Heinze in so many ways,” said Kristopher Krouse, executive director of the Valparaiso-based organization. “He was all about partnership and collaboration. He had a one-of-a-kind leadership style – direct, genuine.”
“He was a devoted volunteer and great supporter (of Save the Dunes) for as long as he was in the region,” said Natalie Johnson, Save the Dunes’ executive director since early this year. “He went above and beyond to mentor and guide me in this new position. I was very, very grateful for that.”
The past weekend had been a “wonderful, wonderful” time for the Engquists, Jo Ann said. Friday, they went to a celebration of the Rotary Club’s 100th anniversary. Saturday night, they attended the annual Shirley Heinze fund-raising event. He came home, went to sleep and never woke up, she said.
Dale and Jo Ann, who worked in special education at Michigan City schools and for the state, were married 55 years. His survivors include three children and five grandchildren.
A memorial service is being planned for a day in August in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Dale’s absence is painful, but Jo Ann treasures the memories.
“I don’t think we ever said we were going to work,” she said. “He was going to the park, and I was going to school.”
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.