people and news

ROBERT A. PORTER has been recently appointed as Director of Parks and Recreation for the Lemont Township Park District. Previously, he served as Assistant Superintendent of Recreation for the Naperville Park District. Mr. Porter is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a degree in Recreation and Park Administration.

______________________________________

PAMELA A. DUNBAR has recently been appointed Recreation Supervisor for the Lemont Township Park District. Ms. Dunbar is a graduate from Western Illinois University with a B.S. Degree in Park and Recreation Administration.

______________________________________

T. ALLEN CASSADY has been named manager of the Robert Crown Community Center.

In his new post, Cassady will be in charge of both the ice arena and the Community Center components of the new (opened January, 1975) facility. He replaces Allen Hyman, who resigned to manage an ice facility in Colorado.

The new administrator comes from the Creve Coeur Ice Arena, Creve Coeur, Mo., in suburban St. Louis, where he was in his third year of the management there. He formerly held the position of Administrative Assistant, for the Springfield (Ill.) Recreation Department which he joined in 1971.

Cassady holds a B.S. degree in Recreation Administration from the University of Iowa where he earned three varsity letters in football and completed part of his work toward a master's degree from the University of Missouri.

______________________________________

The Park District of Oak Park announces the appointments of JEAN AKERS to the position of Conservatory Supervisor and LYNN D. SORDEL to the position of Administrative Assistant.

Mrs. Akers is a native of Devon, Pennsylvania and is a recent graduate of Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture and has a Master of Science degree in Landscape Horticulture.

While enrolled at Ohio State, Jean was involved in greenhouse management, landscape design and also served as a graduate teaching assistant. She also coordinated a landscaping project for the Victorian Village in Columbus, Ohio.

Her responsibilities with the Park District of Oak Park include the operation and management of the greenhouse facility, as well as total responsibility for the operation of a plant science/ecology program for elementary and high school students. Jean will also be responsible for promoting community interest in and use of the Conservatory facility.

Mr. Sordel is a native of Riverside, Illinois and a graduate of Western Washington State College. He has received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Geography and Park and Recreation Administration.

For the last two years Lynn was employed as a recreation supervisor by the city of Bellingham, Washington. His responsibilities included programming recreation activities, supervising programs and budgetary and personnel operations.

His duties for the Park District will include: the coordinating and facilitating of projects between the various departments within the Park District as well as other governmental and civic organizations in Oak Park, preparing publicity releases on programs and services of the Park District and supervising and coordinating pass sales and program registration.

______________________________________

JOHN MILANO has been recently hired as the new Recreation Supervisor at the Elmhurst Park District. Mr. Milano is a 1974 graduate of Western Illinois University and has worked the past year as athletic director with the Franklin Park Park District. He will be in charge of men's athletics as well as many other recreational programs. Mr. Milano is replacing former supervisor Jim Wise.

______________________________________

ROBERT D. ESPESETH, Champaign, has been elected to a three year term on the Board of Directors of the National Society for Park Resources, a branch of the National Recreation and Park Association. Mr. Espeseth is the Outdoor Recreation Specialist, Office of Recreation and Park Resources and Assistant Professor, Department of Leisure Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

He currently serves as a Commissioner on the Champaign County Forest Preserve District Board and is a board member of the Green Meadows Girl Scout Council.

______________________________________

RON LORENZO has been appointed Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Palos Heights Recreation Department. Mr. Lorenzo, attended Moraine Valley Junior College for two years and transferred to George Williams College in Downers Grove. He graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Behavioral Science with an emphasis in recreation.

While attending George Williams College, Ron was employed by the Mack Physical Education Service and also taught at St. Mary's Grammar School. He also coached their eighth grade basketball team for two years.

______________________________________

There have been a number of changes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Department of Recreation and Park Administration has been renamed the Department of Leisure Studies. The Department is housed within the College of Applied Life Studies which was formerly called the College of Physical Education.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 24 January/February, 1976

MICHAEL G. WADE has been appointed Director of the Leisure Behavior Research Lab in addition to continuing his responsibilities as Director of Graduate Studies. Wade earned his undergraduate degree at Loughborough College in England and his M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois.

______________________________________

JERRY B. BURNAM has been appointed Undergraduate Program Director for the Department of Leisure Studies. He was formerly Assistant to the Dean of the College of Applied Life Studies on the same campus. Burnam has a B.S. and M.S. in Recreation from the University of Illinois and is currently completing work on his Ph.D.

______________________________________

There are also a number of new faculty members in the department. JIM CHRISTENSEN has joined the faculty to direct the Outdoor Program as well as teach and conduct research in Outdoor Recreation and Education. Christensen received his B.S. degree from St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

______________________________________

NANCY JAEGER EDWARDS is a Resource Development Specialist with the BEH Community College Project on Curriculum Development in Therapeutic Recreation. Her work involves developing and retrieving instructional resources related to therapeutic recreation curriculum. She received her B.S. in Social Science Education from the University of Wisconsin in Stevens Point. She recently received her M.S. in Therapeutic Recreation at the University of Illinois. Previous experience includes employment with the American National Red Cross as a therapeutic recreator at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.

______________________________________

JOHN R. KELLY has been appointed as Associate Professor. Kelly is doing research and teaching in the sociology of leisure. He became the third member of the department's Leisure Behavior Research Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1972 with a dissertation on The Social Meaning of Leisure. He also holds Master's degrees from Yale, the University of Southern California, and the University of Oregon. He has taught sociology at George Mason University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and Pacific University.

______________________________________

WOOK PARK has joined the faculty as Evaluation and Research Coordinator with the BEH Community College Project. The Project, under the direction of Jerry D. Kelley, involves curriculum development and research in therapeutic recreation for junior colleges. Park has participated in research involving the National Competency Study (1974), the implications of competency based education for junior colleges (1975), and other technical reports on curriculum evaluation. He is presently enrolled in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the same university as a doctoral candidate. His dissertation, which has just been completed, deals with the impact of industrialization on attitudes toward education.

______________________________________

J. ROBERT ROSSMAN has accepted the position of Coordinator of Field Work Programs with the Department of Leisure Studies. For the past five years he was Assistant Director of the Oak Park Recreation Department. Mr. Rossman did his undergraduate work at Indiana University and received his M.S. degree from the University of Illinois in January in 1975.

______________________________________

DENNIS DELANCE has been appointed Superintendent of Recreation for the Buffalo Grove Park District, effective in November 1975. Mr. DeLance previously had been employed by the Rolling Meadows Park District as Men's Athletic Coordinator.

A former resident of Boone, Iowa, he received his B.S. degree in Therapeutic and Administrative Recreation from the University of Iowa, at Iowa City.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 25 January/February, 1976