Six parks and recreation leaders and educators receive honors

Published: October 26, 2011

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis delivers the Hartzog lecture. image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON, S.C. — Six people, including the director of the National Park Service, received awards at the George B. Hartzog Jr. luncheon at Clemson University.

Jonathan B. Jarvis, 18^th director of the park service, received the Walter T. Cox Award for “sustained achievement in public service, providing leadership in administration of public lands and for policy formation affecting our natural and cultural resources.” The award is named for the former Clemson University president and director of the Santee-Cooper Authority.

Jarvis also gave the annual Hartzog lecture following the luncheon and awards presentations.

Others honored at Monday’s luncheon:

• Ruth Coleman, director of California State Parks, and Becky Kelley, director of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Parks, Recreation & Historic Sites Division, received the Fran P. Mainella Award. Co-presented this year, the award is given “for sustained and innovative achievement by a woman in the  management of North America’s natural, historic or cultural heritage.” The award is named in appreciation of the career of Mainella, the first woman to direct the National Park Service. She is visiting scholar in Clemson’s parks, recreation and tourism management department.
• Lawrence “Larry” Zehnder, administrator of the Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Department, received the Benton H. Box Award for “recognition as a private practitioner who by precept and example inspires in students the quest for knowledge and encourages curriculum innovation to inculcate an ‘environmental ethic’ as the rule of conduct.” Zehnder has served in parks and recreation positions in Cleveland; Greenville; Athens, Tenn.; Charleston; and Norfolk, Va. The award is named for the former dean of Clemson’s College of Forest and Recreation Resources.
• Margaret “Gina” McLellan of Clemson received the Dwight A. Holder Award “for outstanding work as a doctoral student, faculty or alumnus of Clemson University’s parks, recreation and tourism management department and sustained achievement after graduation, management, wise use and conservation of natural and cultural resources.” An emeritus professor of parks and protected area management, she retired from Clemson in 2003. The award is named for the former chairman of the S.C.  Parks, Recreation and Tourism Commission.
• The late David Larsen received the William C. Everhart Award in memoriam for his “sustained achievements in interpretation that have illuminated, created insights to and fostered an appreciation of our cultural and historic heritage.” An interpreter at such historic locations as Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Washington Monument, Larsen was a leader nationally in interpretive training and planning. The award is named in appreciation of Everhart’s career as an interpreter, researcher, administrator, author and creator of the Harpers Ferry Center for creative design and communication.

The George B. Hartzog Jr. luncheon and lecture in Clemson's parks, recreation and tourism management department are supported by a fund created when Everhart and his wife, Mary, gave a gift to honor Hartzog, who was director of the park service from 1964 to 1973 and whose administration led the largest expansion of the national park system in its history.

END