FEATURED STORY
Maryland State Parks
Daryl Anthony '86, Former Assistant Secretary for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources
BY TY DEMARTINO '90
Name a state park in Maryland, any park, and Daryl Athony ’86 has visited and probably served as its director.
Anthony recently concluded a long and decorated career in the Maryland State Parks system, fulfilling his lifelong love and dream of working in and serving nature.
“I was one of the few Black kids who had two amazing parents who took us camping all the time,” Anthony said. “I’m now a camper, hiker and fisher because of my parents.”
The Anthony family piled into a 1970’s Winnebago and explored “all of Maryland’s state parks,” where a young Anthony would wade in streams for hours and use the woodlands as his private playground. But when he returned home to Baltimore County, Md., Anthony quickly realized his love of nature was unique to him.
“It was tough. There weren’t that many people that shared my same interest that looked like me,” he admitted.
When it came time to think about his future, Anthony faced another dilemma of “trying to create a career” of his love of being outdoors. A chance run-in with a law enforcement officer led him to his destiny.
At 16, when Anthony was illegally riding a motorcycle on a trail in Patapsco State Park in Maryland, he was stopped by a park ranger. After being politely reprimanded by the officer, Anthony earnestly asked him “How do I get a job like yours?” He was soon hired and placed on what Anthony called “bowl patrol” – scrubbing the park’s public toilets until they shined.
“And that’s how I began my career,” he said with a laugh.
From there, he served as a seasonal ranger at Patapsco State Park, but wanted to go into the law enforcement aspect of parks management which led him to Frostburg. Once he was two and a half hours away from his home, Anthony (known as “J.D.” to his FSU friends) admitted that college was a time to redefine himself personally and professionally.
“I loved everything about Frostburg.”
Despite his love for college and all that it had to offer, Anthony rushed his undergrad experience to three and a half years to sit for the park ranger written examination. He graduated in December of 1986 and began ranger school in January followed by the police academy on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
His first assignment was Elk Neck State Park in rural Cecil County where he met his wife. Anthony then transferred from park to park throughout the state working as the regional manager for state parks in Western, Central, Southern and Eastern Maryland. He climbed the police ranks from corporal to major, until 2016 when Gov. Larry Hogan appointed Anthony as the assistant secretary for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. He oversaw the Maryland Park Services, Maryland Forest Services, Wildlife and Heritage Services, Maryland Environmental Trust and Engineering and Construction Development.
While it was a big job and in line with Anthony’s personal career goals, he quickly realized he was spending more time in offices and meetings and less time in his beloved outdoors.
“It changed my career,” Anthony said with gratitude. “But I lost my focus.”
Anthony retired but was then encouraged to come out of retirement to help create and serve as executive director of the Office of Outdoor Recreation for the state. “It was very, very, very awesome.”
He has since left the state again and now spends his time serving on advisory committees because parks are “absolutely in my blood.” And the love of outdoors is also in the blood of his offspring. His son, Maxwell, graduated from FSU in 2013 with his Recreation and Parks Management degree and works as a tech in storm water regulation and management for Howard County, Md.
Meanwhile, Anthony and his wife have settled into a log cabin in Deep Creek, Md., and are loving life by biking, kayaking and simply enjoying life in the woods.
“There’s just a level of comfort with nature,” he said.