Udert W. “Judge” Hella (1908-1993) received the state level Pugsley Medal in 1964 “in recognition of his outstanding public service as director of state parks for the state of Minnesota.” Hella was born in Cloquet, Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1931 with a degree in civil engineering and later did graduate work in the area of public health. After two years as a draftsman and member of a field survey crew with the state highway department, Hella joined the NPS in 1933. His first position was engineering foreman in a CCC camp at Scenic State Park. Soon after, he was transferred to Cascade River State Park and then to a project superintendent for the CCC camp in operation there. From there, he became the NPS regional office in Omaha as an acting NPS inspector for CCC projects and in the state of Wyoming, before becoming camp superintendent at Scenic State Park. Throughout his career, Hella was called “the Inspector” by some of his coworkers based on his role in the NPS.
With the onset of World War II, Hella was identified as a “wartime essential project engineer” and left state parks to work for Northwest Airlines. After the war, he held a variety of positions outside the parks field, including one as general manager and corporate secretary of Kol Inc. of St. Paul, which manufactured tubular steel and sheet metal products. It was from that position that Hella was recruited to become director of state parks in 1953.Hella’s appointment marked the beginning of a new era for Minnesota’s state parks. Immediately after accepting the position, he toured the park system and was appalled at the deterioration that he found at the 62 areas comprising 82,000 acres during the World War II era.
He led the state’s governor, over 1,400 organizations, and thousands of individuals to lobby for the park. The first bill to establish Voyageurs was filed in 1969, it was signed into law in 1971, and the park opened in 1975.