From the interview with Glen Bellerud on May 8, 2002 conducted by Rae Tennyson for the Fort Worden Oral History Program. Mr. Bellerud was the first Manager of Fort Worden State Park and served here from 1972 to 1991. Here he discusses some of the significant developments during his tenure:

“We built the reservation system, my crew Gus and Bonnie Boice and Sue Vance put together the first reservation system for State Parks…There was a Fort Worden management plan which we followed and we put that package together. I worked with people in California, Oregon. Basically it was (for) the camping, and we put the first reservation program together for that and the first one for vacation housing, the first conference center situation…Over time we got our budgets and we kept going, we did the C(ommanding) O(fficer’s) house, I helped put together the ladies that did the CO’s house (the Heritage Group). They had a limited budget. We went all over the state looking for furniture, etc. a lot of volunteers, a lot of donated things had gone to it. Worked with Jim Humphrey on the Rhody Garden, we put that in. We did the bakery when it was here working with disabled kids…Got the Marine Science Center going, worked with the Artist in Residence programs…with Centrum. While I was here, Fiddle Tunes came into being, the Bluegrass, all that stuff. “Officer and a Gentlemen,” I brought those people in for that movie. “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial “with director Bob Altman, we did shoot …even a lot of commercials like the Maytag commercial were shot here.  We put in the underwater reef… We did all the work out on the front of North Beach…the batteries were saved up there. We put the second campground while I was here. I was the Jefferson County Centennial Chair and one of the first big projects was working with Yvonne Ferrell who was deputy director of our agency to get the first donation to turn the balloon hangar into the Pavilion. The first $250,000 came from State Parks. I myself laid over half of that grass turf (in Littlefield Green).”