Paul Pritchard earned the BA at the University of Missouri in 1966 and the MS in business administration with a concentration in planning at UT in 1971. Generally recognized as one of the most influential conservationists of his day, he served as president of the National Parks and Conservation Association from 1980 to 1997. In 1983 he led the association to create the National Park Trust to function as a nonprofit land trust exclusively devoted to expanding national parklands. In 1990 he created the March for the Parks, the world’s largest Earth Day event.
He was the founding chair of the Climate Institute and a founder of both the US Green Group and Friends of China’s National Parks. He served in the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (1972–74) and then joined the federal government—first the Department of Commerce, and then the Department of the Interior—in his distinguished career. He is the author of more than one hundred articles, among them the National Geographic’s article celebrating the 75th anniversary of National Park Service. In 1986 he was the first person to receive the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, presented by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.