Fifth Annual

Charles K. Brightbill Awards

Russell Foval

Fred Schrumph

Don Roberts

Two undergraduate students and an alumnus of the Department of Recreation and Park Administration at the University of Illinois were honored recently at the Fifth Annual Charles K. Brightbill Banquet.

The persons receiving Brightbill Awards were FRED SCHRUMPF, a senior in the Department of Recreation and Park Administration, and RUSSELL J. FOVAL, Director of the Recreation Department of the Decatur Park District. DON C. ROBERTS, a junior in recreation, received the Lt. John Bruce Capel Memorial Scholarship.

Schrumpf has been active in student and departmental events during his four years at the U. of I.

He was president of the Student Recreation Organization during the 1969-1970 school year and was sophomore class representative to that group in 1968-1969. He also has served on the Student Planning Committee of the Illinois Park & Recreation Society and on the Charles K. Brightbill Banquet Committee.

Schrumpf is a member of the American Camping Association, the Illinois Park & Recreation Society and the National Recreation and Park Association. He was named to the Dean's List of the College of Physical Education in 1968 and 1969.

Schrumpf is currently in England participating in the Department's Semester Abroad work-study program.

Russell J. Foval, who received a master's degree from the Department of Recreation and Park Administration in 1955, has been Director of Recreation at Decatur since 1946. He has been active in advising the Department on the development of recreation and park curricula and on guidelines for field work experience for students.

Foval is the first Department alumnus to be honored with a Brightbill Award. Previously, the award had been presented to a graduate student enrolled in the Department. The alumni award is presented on the basis of the individual having made outstanding contributions to the profession, being widely known to have exhibited outstanding leadership and personality characteristics and having maintained interest in and concern about the activities of the Department over the years.

Foval was president of the Illinois Recreation Association (now Illinois Park & Recreation Society) in 1948 and in 1967 was made a fellow and life-time member of that organization.

He also served as vice president of the Pennsylvania Recreation Association in 1945. Foval was Recreation Director in Reading, Pa., during 1944 and 1945. Prior to that, he was Recreation Director in Alton from 1933 to 1944.

Don C. Roberts, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy C. Roberts of Beardstown (Director of the Beardstown Park District) was selected as the winner of the Capel Scholarship on the basis of his excellent academic record.

The scholarship is presented annually in memory of Lt. John Bruce Capel, a graduate of the Department of Recreation and Park Administration, who was killed in action in Vietnam May 12, 1966, while leading a Marine platoon. To be eligible for the scholarship, which covers a student's tuition and fees for an academic year, an individual must have an all-university grade point average of at least 3.75 and have successfully completed at least two semesters in the recreation and park curriculum.

Illinois Parks and Recreation    16    July/August, 1971