Nov 23, 2013 3 min read

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. – When Ron Tipton was a teenager, he and his dad hiked in the Rocky Mountains, an experience that led to his “dream job.”

“That hike stimulated my interest in the outdoors,” said Tipton, 65.

He was hired in August to lead the 43,000-member Appalachian Trail Conservancy as its executive director.

The nonprofit conservancy, headquartered in Harpers Ferry, is charged with preserving and managing the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail, which runs through 14 East Coast states from Georgia to Maine.

Tipton replaced Mark Wenger, who left the post after about a year and a half. Before Wenger, David Startzell of Shepherdstown, W.Va., headed the agency for 25 years.

Long familiar with the workings of the Appalachian Trail and the conservancy, Tipton is a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, one of the largest of the 31 trail-maintenance clubs in the system. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an environmental law degree.

Before coming to the conservancy, Tipton was senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association in Washington, D.C., a 350,000-member citizens advocacy group for national parks. He was previously employed by the World Wildlife Fund.

No search committee was appointed to find Wenger’s replacement.

“I was recruited,” Tipton said.

Preserving and managing the Appalachian Trail falls on the more than 6,000 club volunteers, who put in more than 200,000 hours a year on trail maintenance and major projects like building bridges and shelters, according to a conservancy website.

Coordinating the clubs and supervising the conservancy’s nearly 50 full-time employees in its Harpers Ferry headquarters and its regional offices in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia and Massachusetts are part of Tipton’s duties as director.

He also is responsible for its $6.5 million annual budget, fundraising through grants, foundations and donations, and developing a new 10-year strategic plan, he said.

The trail falls under the protection of the National Park Service, which owns some of its property along with the U.S. Forest Service and states it crosses through.

Up to 3 million people walk the trail every year, including about 500 or so “thru-hikers” who finish it in one season, “section hikers” and those who enjoy it on afternoon jaunts.

“It’s used more than any hiking trail in the world,” Tipton said.

He said he walked the trail in 1978 in 4 1-2 months.

The Appalachian Trail was created in the 1920s and 1930s by a confederation of volunteer hiking clubs that for about 80 years was called the Appalachian Trail Confederation. The name “confederation” was dropped and replaced with “conservancy” in 2005.

Tipton grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He and his wife, Rita, live in Rockville, Md.