PEOPLE.

APPOINTMENTS

Mesa (Ariz.) Parks and Recreation administrator Mark Woodward has been named to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America's Board of Directors.

The GCSAA has been the leading professional association for those who manage and maintain golf facilities in the United States and worldwide since 1926. From its headquarters in Lawrence, Kan., the association provides education, information, and representation to more than 19,000 members from over 65 countries.

Woodward, a 24-year employee of the city of Mesa, is currently responsible for managing Dobson Ranch and Riverview golf courses, which combined played more than 180,000 rounds last year; two municipal tennis centers; two major-league baseball spring-training facilities; and the Mesa cemetery. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix in 1997.

Jacqueline J. Petty was sworn in and seated as a member of the Peoria (Ill.) Park District's Board of Trustees on April 28. The successful write-in candidate has joined incumbents James A. Cummings and Stanley P. Budzinski in the central district. Timothy J. Cassidy was reelected president of the board.

AWARDS

Michelle Park, CLP, executive director of the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association, has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Florida's College of Health and Human Performance. The youngest recipient of this award to date, Park graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in recreation in 1976.

"This is the highest award the college can bestow on one of its alumni," Dean Patrick Byrd, Ph.D., said. "Michelle represents the type of professional who not only gives back to the profession, but also to the community she serves."

A leading proponent of the National Recreation and Park Association-sponsored "Parks and Recreation: The Benefits are Endless ...[TM]" training and marketing program, her professional career began with the Palm Beach County (Fla.) Department of Parks and Recreation. Stints with the Maryland Recreation and Park Association and NRPA, where she served for five and a half years as director of professional services, followed.

"I am so fortunate to have been guided toward the profession of parks and recreation while a student at the University of Florida, and owe a great deal to all of the faculty," said Park. "It is easy to give of one's time for things we believe in. Parks, recreation, and open spaces are essential to our lives. Someone has to speak out for them."

OBITUARIES

Donald F. Bresnan, commissioner of the Champaign (Ill.) Park District and a lifetime trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association, died Friday, March 19. He was 77.

Bresnan served on the park district's Board of Park Commissioners for 36 years, and is credited as being the driving force behind Champaign's growth and development. "He was very demanding that our parks be the best," said Robert Toalson, the district's general manager. "If you did your job, he'd back you all the way." Champaign was presented with the National Gold Medal award three times under Bresnan's tenure.

Toalson said one of Bresnan's most notable achievements was the successful agreement he dealt between the park and school districts for joint use of facilities. "That's done all over the nation now," Toalson told the Champaign News-Gazette.

Bresnan served as president of the Illinois Association of Park Districts and NRPA's Citizen-Board Member branch. In 1984, the park district renamed its headquarters the Bresnan Meeting Center in honor of Bresnan's dedication to the district and community.

Kathryn E. Krieg, who served more than 40 years as recreation superintendent for the city of Des Moines, Iowa, died March 14. She was 94.

Credited with the development of one of the first organized playground programs in the country, Krieg was a charter member of the Iowa Parks and Recreation Association, National Recreation and Park Association, and the Society of Recreation Workers of America Inc., which later became the American Park and Recreation Society. She was a member of the inaugural NRPA Board of Trustees in 1965.

Of all her accomplishments, Krieg told the Iowa Parks and Recreation Journal in 1974 that she derived the most enjoyment from seeing others have fun. "You shouldn't just try to be an administrator," she reminded. "You've got to be interested in people. Kids must come to recreation activities because they want to."

Krieg got her start with the recreation commission in Des Moines in 1928. There she organized the Iowa Recreation Workshop Association, which promoted recreation throughout the state by hosting workshops for volunteer leaders.

National Recreation and Park Association Trustee Penny Holloway Howe died in April. A former chair of the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board, she was a promoter and defender of many parks and recreationcauses.

Howe began her professional life as a teacher, but when rheumatoid arthritis struck, working for the community became her career. One of her greatest triumphs was the passage of the Mountain Preserves Charter, which saved nearly 26,000 acres of the desert mountain parks in and around Phoenix.

She was characterized by a friend this way: "Penny's most important contribution to our city is her mature, well-rounded approach to problems, and her ability to communicate orally and in writing with everyone ... Many others have contributed money and/ or service to the community and the protection of the environment, but Penny has contributed her very life."