Rick Martin has dedicated his career to service.

He spent 39 years working for the National Park Service, and the last 16 of those years were at the Vicksburg National Military Park. He was the chief of operations at the park before retiring in January. Now Martin is the visitor services manager for the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.

“I’ve been here for about 16 years and made a lot of friends, and I like the community, like the area,” Martin said. “Why leave? This is my home.”

Not long after retiring from the park service, Martin decided he was ready for something new and applied for the visitor services position when he saw the advertisement in the paper.

“This was still something that piqued my interest, still in the tourism industry,” Martin said.

The VCVB has been getting positive feedback on Martin’s hiring.

“We’re delighted that he has chosen to stay in Vicksburg and to come to work in the hospitality industry with us,” VCVB Executive Director Bill Seratt said.

Since Martin has worked in Vicksburg for the past 16 years he has a good knowledge of the community and tourism, but he is now learning about reading statistics and compiling reports.

“Fortunately I know the city of Vicksburg, I know the attractions, I know many of the people,” Martin said.

He sees visitor services as a middleman between the visitors and the attractions and hotels.

“They look to us to provide information to the visitor and so we’ve got to help them, and we got to help the visitor get to them,” Martin said.

He said organization is one of the top qualities he will bring to the job.

“This is a well-oiled machine,” Martin said. “From what I’ve seen, and I’ve been looking on the outside for years, the focus is on getting tourism to the city of Vicksburg and keeping tourists in the city of Vicksburg. We want to continue with that.”

Martin makes the schedules for the 10 people that work at the four information centers. The four centers in Vicksburg are located at the Mississippi State Welcome Center off the interstate near the bridge, the Old Depot Museum downtown and the Vicksburg Information Center across the street from the fourth location at the National Military Park.

“We’re so glad for his maturity and his knowledge of how people move through public facilities,” Seratt said.

“He will help us build a better relationship with the park as well,” VCVB board member Lori Burke said.

Martin said he wore a uniform to work every day when he was in the park service. Even in the 33 years he spent in the Army National Guard, he wore a uniform daily. The hardest part of his new job is deciding what to wear in the morning.

“I’ve never had to worry about what I was wearing everyday,” Martin said.

He has been on the job for two weeks and said it has been great so far, and he is just working on learning the culture of the office. The VCVB also hired two new travel counselors around the same time he was hired, and Martin said they are doing a great job as well. Martin is replacing Leah Sullivan who resigned to obtain her master’s degree.