Theodore (Tedd) McCann spent most of his professional career working for the National Park Service on a variety of projects, but specializing in urban parks.
He was born in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, on May 29, 1929. McCann began work at the National Park Service in 1963 as an art director. McCann's interest in urban parks began with the creation of the Office of Urban Affairs. McCann worked on initial plans for the Wolf Trap Park, Virginia; Georgetown Waterfront and Fort Lincoln, Washington, DC; Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore; Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area; and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, Missouri. In 1968, in the wake of the riots in Washington, DC, he and designer Russell Wright conceived of and developed the "Summer in the Parks" program, which provided cultural and recreational activities in parks throughout the region. In October 1968, McCann was promoted to Assistant Director of the Division of Urban Park Programs for the National Park Service. There he served as head of planning for a number of new urban national parks, including the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco and the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area between Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. McCann retired from the National Park Service in 1984 and died on September 12, 1996 at the age of sixty-seven.
From the description of Papers of Theodore R. McCann, 1961-1989. (University of Maryland Libraries). WorldCat record id: 50061066
