John Sansing, the retired superintendent of Point Reyes National Seashore who skippered the park for nearly a quarter-century, overseeing such extensive and at times contentious projects as the construction of Bear Valley Visitor Center and the re-introduction of tule elk on Pierce Point, died at his Lucas Valley home on February 28. He was 86.

A stoic civil servant who rarely beat around the bush, Sansing took over the reins at Point Reyes when the…