Bearss retired from the NPS on 30 September 1995, though he continued to lead tours of ACW battlefields for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Society, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Civil War Roundtables. The NPS awarded him the unique title of National Park Service Historian Emeritus. Frances and Roger G. Kennedy enjowed the Bearss Fellowship Award in honor of the former chief-historian; it "supports NPS employees' graduate-level studies in American History or American Studies and is administered in partnership with the National Park Foundation."