Carl S. Chavez worked for the California Department of Parks and Recreation from 1966 through 1998. He graduated in 1966 from Humboldt State College with a degree in Wildlife Management.
He began his 32-year career as a Park Ranger at Bodie State Historic Park and traveled the length and breadth of California on assignments as a park ranger on the beaches and in the mountains of Southern California. He promoted up through the ranks of the California State Park System to positions on the Central Coast of California, the Sierra Nevada, and finally to the redwoods of the North Coast.
Mr. Chavez was the recipient of the Department of Parks and Recreation's first "Superintendant of the Year" award in 1985. In 1987 he moved on to a Management leadership role in Regional and Division Headquarters; where he remained until his retirement in 1998.
He resides with his wife Margaret in Graeagle, California near Plumas-Eureka State Park, the favorite park he once managed. His daughter, Abigail, who was also a California State Park Ranger, passed away in 1996. A son, Christopher, is a schoolteacher in Davis, California.