Trailblazers: Tindall takes NRPA issues to the top: after years of fighting for funding on Capitol Hill, Barry Tindall retires.

Name: Barry Tindall

Title: Recently retired director of NRPA's Public Policy Division

Member since: 1965

Thirty-eight years ago, Barry Tindall joined NRPA as a coordinator of special projects. But he soon discovered the thrill of national advocacy for recreation and parks, and appropriations for grant-in-aid programs. He has garnered billions of dollars for investment in public parks and recreation, among hundreds of accomplishments. Even though he is modest, he will admit that he is proud he found a job that has sufficiently challenged him all these years, and he will continue to be a presence on Capitol Hill, albeit as a citizen.

Most proud moment: One day in the late 1970s, Tindall was approached by a congressional staffer who asked for advice about the upcoming decision on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) appropriations. Tindall reminded the staffer that historically the states have received 60 percent of the total appropriations after the federal side had been determined. That year, the calculation brought the states nearly $370 million, which more than doubled what they had previously received. "And I'm sitting in the front row, and by this point every eye was looking at me because they knew who set this up."

Most embarrassing moment: Even with Tindall's LWCF appropriations accomplishment, he did manage to be called out by an NRPA Trustee during a trustees' meeting in the mid-70s, when he gave a status report on pending bills. One item included a section of a bill to restructure the U.S. Olympic movement. Tindall advocated against this portion of the bill because it intruded on local public recreation. But he was promptly scolded by a trustee who knew more about the Olympic movement. "I got beat up pretty badly. Needless to say, the policy I had drafted didn't go another freakin' inch."

Hobbies: Carving water fowl and birding, gardening and garden design, family genealogy and local history.

Words of Wisdom: NRPA needs to work harder and smarter to make our legislators accountable for their actions, and commend them when they do good work. We need to focus on the value of active recreation as our central argument for federal funding.

Favorite quote: "To promote perception is the only truly creative part of recreational engineering,"--Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949).

Future of parks and recreation: We are letting this administration take billions of dollars from the outer continental shelf out of the public's hands. "We, the movement--NRPA and a bunch of others--are not putting the resources that we really should to fight this. The future is ours to create, let's create it right!"

Editor's Note: After more than 35 years of advocating for parks and recreation, NRPA Public Policy Director Barry Tindall retired on June 30. In his role as director, Tindall represented the national public policy and program interests of the association's 23,000 members, and served as the NRPA liaison to a number of allied natural and human resource organizations, coalitions and public agencies.

No one will ever know how much influence Tindall truly has had on keeping park and recreation issues in the forefront of national policy, but during his tenure, the U.S. Congress has appropriated $3.2 billion from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for state and local assistance. It was directly because of his efforts in his last few months with NRPA that $30 million was restored to the program in the FY2005 budget.

Tindall continue to serve NRPA as a consultant to the Public Policy Division. It is because of his incredible work on behalf of the association that we recognize him as a true trailblazer in the field.