Roger Kennedy dies at 85; former National Park Service director

One day deep in the administration of George W. Bush — a time of tumult among environmentalists and conservationists — Roger Kennedy found himself shaking his head and sighing. The Endangered Species Act was in the cross hairs of a Republican Congress and his beloved National Park Service, which Kennedy directed from 1993 to 1997, was under assault.

Kennedy was disgusted by the partisan bickering. When had stewardship of the environment become a political football, he asked, posing a rhetorical question to a reporter. Don't they know that much of the landmark environmental legislation was passed when a Republican, Richard Nixon, was in the White House?

"In those days there was more civility; members of Congress may have disagreed, but they went out to dinner together," Kennedy said. "One guy would come up with the beginnings of the Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act and go to another senator and say: 'We need to pass this. It's the right thing to do.' And they would pass it, and Nixon would sign it. Different times."

Kennedy often invoked the spirit of bipartisanship in his various roles as passionate defender of all things American — its history, its landscapes and its diverse population.

Kennedy, 85, died of melanoma Friday at his home in Rockville, Md....

He was a Washington correspondent and covered the Supreme Court for NBC, and wrote and presented documentaries for PBS as well as two television series for the Discovery Channel. Kennedy also was a bank chairman, failed political candidate, vice president of the University of Minnesota and an executive with the Ford Foundation.