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Tony Smith (upper left) is the new assistant complex supervisor at Cooper Lake State Park. He and his wife and two children come from Daingerfield, where he was the office manager and volunteer coordinator at Daingerfield State Park for four-and-a-half years. Courtesy/Cooper Lake State Park
Visitors to Cooper Lake State Park will be seeing a new face around the complex.
Tony Smith joins the team as assistant complex supervisor with management duties across both park units. Smith will also head up educational programming for the park.
Smith has more than six years of experience with Texas State Parks. He graduated from Tarleton State University with a bachelor’s degree in history and returned later to earn a Master’s degree in the same subject. While earning his degrees, he worked at the W.K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas museum in Thurber, Texas. Smith credits a Dinosaur Valley State
Smith credits a Dinosaur Valley State Park ranger who was guest speaker in one of Smith’s college classes for sparking his interest in working for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He worked as a summer intern at Dinosaur Valley State Park, where some of his unique tasks were cleaning dinosaur tracks, educating guests about dinosaurs and developing plans for a children’s interpretive trail.
Smith then was promoted to assistant office manager position at Bastrop State Park. For the last four and a half years, Smith
For the last four and a half years, Smith has been the office manager and volunteer coordinator at Daingerfield State Park, where he has been able to learn about the different facets of park operations.
“All of this has prepared Tony to be a tremendous asset for Cooper Lake State Park and our local communities,” said complex superintendent Steve Killian.