Frank Alvah Kittredge (1883-1954) received the Pugsley Silver Medal for outstanding contributions to the development and protection of park resources. He was born in Glydon, Minnesota. His interest in engineering emanated from hero worship of an uncle who was a widely acclaimed engineer. From 1905 to 1907, he worked as the engineer in charge of the location and construction of Alaska Central Railroad. He was then retained by the Washington State Highway Commission as a division engineer, where he reamined until 1911. He then pioneered the development of Oregon's state road system as senior highway rngineer for the Oregon State Highway Commission from 1913 to 1915. His responsibilities included surveying and constructing several major highways including the trunk highways from Barstow, California to Las Vegas, Nevada and from Barstow to Kingman, Arizona.
Kittredge joined the U.S Army Corps of Engineers in World War I. As a captain he served 13 months with the Road and Bridge Engineers in change of maintainence and construction of the highways in France. He also oversaw a logging operation that furnished materials for the troops at the front. In 1927, the National Park Service establsihed an engineering division field office in San Francisco. From 1940 to 1941, Kittredge was superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park and from 1941 to 1947 he served as superintendent of Yosemite National Park. A few months after he arrived at Yosemite in 1941, World War II began. Kittredge left Yosemite National Park in 1947 to assume once more the position of chief engineer of the NPS, this time with headquarters in Washington, where he remained until his retirement. He retired at the age of 69 in 1952. He was director of Sierra Club until his death on December 10,1954.