McCann, Theodore R.

Theodore (Tedd) McCann was born in Jeannette, Pennsylvania on May 29, 1929. In 1940, the family moved to Michigan and he graduated from Pontiac High School in 1947. In 1948 he went to Chicago to study art. After serving with the Air Force during the Korean War, he attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC and completed his artistic studies at the George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in art history and painting in 1958.

McCann was a graphics designer with the Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of the Interior from 1957 to 1960 and then spent three years as head of his own house restoration business in Washington. He then joined the National Park Service in 1963 as an art director. He helped put together a graphics and cartography unit in the publications office and received a gold medal from the Federal Design Assembly as the best in government.

McCann's interest in urban parks began in 1967 when National Park Service Director George Hartzog created 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. Urban parks became a special concern for McCann and were the focus of the remainder of his career in the National Park Service. 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. He served on the planning team that created the plan and legislation to establish the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York and New Jersey. He subsequently served as head of planning for other 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. He also participated in the planning of the Lowell National Historical Park, Massachusetts; Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Atlanta; Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near Los Angeles; and Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty, New York. He conducted a study of President Roosevelt's summer home in Warm Springs, Georgia, and in 1971 took a leave of absence to conduct a study of the Rockefeller Estate in Pocantico Hills, New York. In the 1970s and 1980s, he undertook a study of potential African American historic sites throughout the country, several of which Congress included in the National Park System. The Women's Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, New York was his last project before he retired in 1984.

McCann was active in many community groups throughout his life. He was one of the founders of Plan Takoma, a neighborhood organization for which he helped develop a comprehensive plan for the area surrounding the proposed Metrorail station. He was also one of the founders of the Takoma Park Folk Festival and served as treasurer of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City and the Takoma Park Horticultural Society.

McCann's first marriage was to Marilyn Hudson, with whom he had three children: Christopher, Carol Lynn and Clair. He married Loretta Neumann in 1985. Tedd McCann died of cardiopulmonary arrest September 12, 1996 at the age of sixty-seven.

From the guide to the Theodore R. McCann papers, 1945-1989, 1968-1989, (State of Maryland and Historical Collections)