Trailblazers: park professional to citizen leader: after his retirement in 1989, Bob Robertson changed roles and continued leading through NRPA's Citizen Branch.

Name: Robert O. (Bob) Robertson

Title: Former NRPA Citizen Branch President

Member since: 1965

"Citizen involvement keeps parks and recreation running," Bob Robertson says. These are significant words from a man who directed city agencies for nearly 40 years. Robertson began his work with parks and recreation in 1950 as the assistant director of parks and recreation in Albany, Ore., then heading on to Corvallis, Ore. in 1961 and Anchorage, Alaska in 1971. Robertson could see the bigger picture and knew that leadership at a national level would improve his initiatives.

This led him to become the president of the Oregon Recreation and Park Association in 1955 and the first president of the Alaska Recreation and Park Association in 1975--a position he resumed 10 years after his first tenure. He was particularly proud of his agency hosting the President's Commission on Outdoor Recreation visit to Alaska in 1986.

Shortly after, in 1989, Robertson retired as a leader in city parks and assumed the role of an active citizen. From 1993 to 2005, Robertson was an NRPA Citizen Board director, holding the positions of president and vice president between 2000 and 2003. He was also a member of the NRPA Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2005. Robertson received distinguished service awards from both the Alaska Recreation and Park Association and the Oregon Recreation and Park Association. And although he is now officially retired from both the professional and citizen side of parks and recreation, he contends that he stays in close contact with his beloved agencies and colleagues.

Proudest moment: "I think probably the No. 1 thing that comes to mind is to see the people who have worked for me receive awards and have gone on to become outstanding professionals in the field. Also, I'm very proud of hosting the Pacific Rim Parks and Recreation Institute [in 1989]. It brought together some of the top people from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand and our Pacific northwest, including states and provinces in Canada and the United States. A lot of agencies in the northwest area of the country didn't get to go to national meetings that often. That made it worthwhile."

Influences: "One person that helped me greatly when I first started in parks and recreation in 1950 was Dorothea Lensch. I was in a small community at the time and she was the director of recreation in Portland, and she had a lot to do with getting our state association formed. She was very active with the National Recreation Association before the umbrella organization was formed. She worked with us and the smaller communities quite readily."

Words of wisdom: "I think that when young people get a job, they should go into the community before they start making judgment calls. They want to get going right now. I think they should take some time to see what's interesting in the community and what their programs can offer."

Future of parks and recreation: "As more money for parks and recreation become increasingly scarce, we must depend on one of our greatest resources--our volunteers. The programs that [parks and recreation agencies] conduct allow many opportunities for people to volunteer their time to help with activities."