2025 Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

The fifteenth class of Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame honorees has been announced by the Appalachian Trail Museum’s Hall of Fame selection committee.
The 2025 Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame class honorees are Richard B. Anderson of Camden, Maine; the late Walter Greene of New York City, New York, the late Marion Park of Washington, DC, and Ronald Tipton of Rockville, Maryland.
 

Most everyone knows that the Appalachian Trail ends in the north at Mount Katahdin in Maine. In 1993, Richard B. Anderson, a biologist and then Commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation, envisioned an extension of the A.T. across the US-Canadian border, providing opportunities for hikers to walk the Appalachian Range from Georgia to Cap Gaspé, Québec, where the range tumbles into the sea. In the decades since, the trail has grown to include sections in over a dozen countries, routed along the geological remnants of the Central Pangean Mountains, including the Appalachians in North America, Europe’s Caledonian Mountains, and the Atlas Mountains in Africa. As of 2023, the IAT links 6,000 miles of trail ringing the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Dick was guided by the work of Benton MacKaye, Myron Avery, Dave Startzell, Dave Field and many others throughout the development of the IAT. Dick has built relationships to sustain the IAT that emulate the vision and practice of the A.T. community.

Walter Greene was a Broadway actor living in New York City in the late 1920s. But he had a vacation home in tiny Willimantic, Maine. He learned of Benton MacKaye’s dream of a trail along the Appalachians. More than anyone else, he was responsible for scouting and laying out the initial route of the A.T. from Katahdin south for 120 miles. After meeting Myron Avery by chance in 1930, he joined the famous Avery/Schairer/Philbrick/Jackson expedition in 1933 that blazed the Trail from Katahdin to the West Branch of the Pleasant River and then led the group from there to Blanchard. In 1935 Greene accomplished a great deal through interaction with the Civilian Conservation Corps crews who were building much of the new A.T. and also the critical cable bridge across the West Branch of the Penobscot River.
Greene is not well known today because he was hospitalized in 1936 with a serious illness. He never set foot on the A.T. again and passed away in 1941.

Picture a group of men in suits, just off work from their mostly government day jobs, sitting around a wood-paneled study, talking Trail.  Sitting on the floor taking notes is Marion Park, who joined the Potomac A.T. Club in 1933 and helped edit its early newsletter and then in 1941 became Secretary of the Appalachian Trail Conference, serving in that position until 1955. In those days that meant keeping records of all the ATC (and cross-over PATC) meetings and often going out in the field with speed-hiker Myron Avery, taking notes as he measured and noted deficiencies at the same time.  The accuracy of those notes endures and was essential to the organization’s governance, guidebooks, and maps in its first three decades. 
 
Every organization needs a Marion Park at its center to keep it grounded, documenting decisions and plans.  In addition to all this, Marion and Jean Stephenson maintained a side trail to the A.T. from the Meadow Spring and Buck Hollow trails in Shenandoah National Park, and Marion was Treasurer of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club from 1937 to 1957.

Ronald Tipton has been deeply involved with the Appalachian Trail for nearly 50 years. He joined the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club in 1974 and maintained a section of the A.T. for more than 20 years. In the mid-1970’s, as a staff member of the House Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Subcommittee, he worked with the House National Park Subcommittee to help draft and promote the 1978 amendments to the National Trails System Act. Soon afterward, during his A.T. thru-hike, Ron prepared a report highlighting high priority sections of the Trail corridor to be acquired and protected. He was then hired to be the National Parks Program Director for The Wilderness Society, working with closely with Dave Startzell and other Trail advocates to secure a significant increase in annual appropriations for the A.T. land acquisition program. In 1983 Ron was one of the founding members of the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association (ALDHA) and has been an active member ever since.
The capstone of Ron's professional career came in 2013 when he was recruited to become President & CEO of the ATC, and served in that capacity until he retired at the end of 2017. His accomplishments as the leader of ATC included creating a new initiative for preserving the larger landscape surrounding the Trail and significant increases in ATC's funding and staff.

The 2025 Hall of Fame Class will be honored at the Hall of Fame Banquet on Saturday, November 22, 2025 at the Bavarian Inn Resort in Shepherdstown, WV. Follow THIS LINK for more information. The Banquet will be one of a full schedule of events during the Hall of Fame Weekend.