Park Manager Shea Joyner
Getting Pain to Have Fun
From his days as a seasonal employee at Lee State Park in Bishopville, SC, Shea Joyner knew he wanted a career with the
SC State Park Service. On his first day working at the park, Shea ran a truck into a stump and dented the side.
“I thought for sure I’d be fired. But when I told the manager, he appreciated my honesty. I knew from that point on the park service was the place I wanted to work,” Joyner said.
A Bishopville native, Joyner earned a bachelor’s degree in Recreation & Parks Management from Penn State University in State College, Pa., and returned to Lee State Park where he was hired as a ranger.
“What really made me decide on this career was the fact that every day that I came to work there was a different job to do,” Joyner explains. “We might work on a canoe trail one day and the next we were doing a school program for first graders. We got to work with not only our visitors but also with other agencies. We worked with DNR to put on the River Festival and with Carolina Power & Light to have volunteer work days. The variety of the job and working with different people, whether they were visitors or other agencies, is really what attracted me to the job.”
In his eight-year-career, Joyner has quickly moved through the ranks. He was an assistant ranger at Hunting Island, a Ranger I at Lake Greenwood and served as a Senior Ranger at Huntington Beach. He was promoted to assistant manager at Kings Mountain and finally to manager at Croft State Park.
Joyner has now returned to Kings Mountain as that park’s manager. He oversees eight full-time employees and eight seasonal workers as well as the operation of some 7,000 acres of park land and more than 200 facilities, most built by the Civilian Conservation Corps prior to 1940. He is also responsible for the park’s fiscal, natural and cultural resources.
Joyner lives on the park with his wife and year-old son. Of all the park locations he’s worked during his career, Kings Mountain remains his favorite. “This is probably where I’ve had the most fun because it’s so much of a challenge to keep up the facilities and the staff here is outstanding to work with.”
With all of the demands of managing a state park, Joyner said he’d still encourage others to become a park ranger. “Many people perceive this job very differently from what it actually is. I would make sure they understood that it’s not just a job but a lifestyle, and it can be very addicting, Joyner said. “It’s the most fun you can have and still get paid.”