John Neff- First President, Friends of Baxter State Park

Meet the first president of Friends of Baxter State Park, John Neff.

John has a remarkable history with Katahdin, serving as the Maine Appalachian Trail Club president, an Appalachian Trail Conservancy board member, and for 20 years, he was the steward of the last section of the Appalachian Trail, the final hike to the northern terminus, the summit of Katahdin.

My own spiritual life was being developed, and I began to sense the spiritual nature of Katahdin… there’s something that mountains provide, contact with the basis of life. Life that is beyond what you can see and touch. A spiritual life.
- John Neff

As our first president, Neff shaped and guided Friends of Baxter State Park. With our founding members, he forged our commitment to Baxter’s FOREVER WILD vision for the Park and ensured that we remain a strong public advocate for the Park. The Park and Friends owe him an immense debt of gratitude.

Neff speaks across a tableland-wide variety of topics, interviewed expertly by Jensen Bissell, former Park Director, and Bill Green, Maine’s best storyteller. Neff sees Katahdin through the eyes of his spirituality and his many years of service to the organizations that share his values.  

He is the author of Katahdin: An Historic Journey - Legends, Explorations, and Preservation of Maine's Highest Peak. He co-authored Baxter State Park and Katahdin with Friends’ Historian Howard Whitcomb.

Hosts Jensen Bissell and Bill Green are members of the board of directors of Friends of Baxter State Park.