Longtime Hartley Nature Center Leader Moves to Next Adventure

Tom O'Rourke taking his passion for environment and nature to his next challenge.

Duluth’s Hartley Nature Center is a city treasure. And now the person who has helped lead it for over a decade is moving on to his next adventure.

“Hartley is such a community gem, you know, and the staff are so amazing. The board, the supporters,” said outgoing Executive Director, Tom O’Rourke.

“You know any time you tell people that you work for Hartley, people just tell you how much they love the park, how much they love the nature center. So, it’s just been a joy to contribute to that over all these years,” said O’Rourke.

O’Rourke leaves no doubt he loves the park, and he loves his work. Executive Director since 2011, he may have had only one title, but he had many roles at a place dear–and near–to him.

“You get to do donor relations, grant writing, staff supervision, program visioning. You know I live on the other side of Hartley. I literally share a property line with the park, so this work has always felt very personal to me. It’s been a very interesting run. I’ve met amazing people, and very proud of Hartley and all the work that we do for the community,” O’Rourke said.

If a guy’s going to be moving on, he says it is a good time. He says things are stable. Programs have expanded, a building addition is finished, and the team and Hartley Nature Center survived COVID.

So, what voice is calling him now?

“Executive Director, starting May first, of the Ernest Oberholtzer Foundation, which maintains environmentalist Ernest Oberholtzer’s property on Rainy Lake as a conservation retreat center for artists and other kindred spirits. I’ll be officing from home in Duluth, but spending some amount of my summertime on an island on Rainy Lake. So, I’m very excited,” he said.

Of course, when you spend so much time surrounded by a place that becomes so special to you, a piece of it stays with you–and your heart—no matter where you go.

He smiles easily when thinking about what he will take with him–from the almost magical setting–in the woods.

“Well, just this pocket of wildness in the middle of Duluth, you know. One of my favorite spots is the meadow. And you go down into the meadow and you can really see no sign of human development. You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. It just provides opportunities to get into nature and sort of slow down and connect with the natural world and the importance of wild spaces. I love the park, I love the people, I love the programs at Hartley, so it’s bittersweet, bittersweet,” O’Rourke said.

But, now it’s time to look at the map, and head out on an exciting, still-unseen, new adventure.

For O’Rourke, it will mean watching to see what’s coming around the corner on his next trail, while leaving his footprints forever on this one.

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