George H. Wirt was Pennsylvania’s first professionally trained forester and the co-founder and first director of the State Forest Academy begun here in 1903. A protege of Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock, he advocated learning through theory and practice and set pioneering trends in forestry education. He was the architect of forest protection legislation enacted in 1915 and of a successful wildfire protection plan. Wirt served as Chief Forest Fire Warden from 1915 to 1946.