NSPR bestows William P. Mott Jr. Awards

At NRPA's Congress in Reno, Nev., the National Society for Park Resources gave the William P. Mott Jr. Award to several deserving candidates. Formerly known as the NSPR Founders' Award, it recognizes outstanding service to the field of parks and recreation and to NSPR.

The Award for Excellence in an organization went to Texas A&M University's department of recreation, park and tourism sciences. The program has been a major leader in the education of students in the fields of natural resource recreation, recreation administration, recreation, park and tourism development and eco-tourism, and has graduated more than 2,000 undergraduate students and close to 400 graduate degrees in the park and recreation profession. Several of their professors are world-renowned experts in their fields as well as active in NRPA. The faculty has conducted research totaling several million dollars.

The Award for Excellence for an individual went to Dwight Beall and Dr. Stephen Holland. Beall has served the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the nation for the past 30 years in a variety of assignments in Louisville, Ky., and Baltimore, Md., districts. Since 1987 he has served as the operations project manager for Raystown Lake, Pa. Under his leadership, Raystown Lake was selected for the Corps of Engineers National Project of the Year in 1998. In addition to his daily duties, Dwight has served for many years as a mentor, role model and national natural resource career development leader. Through his entire career, Beall has distinguished himself as a national leader among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Operations Project Managers, as well as a loyal and dedicated public servant.

Holland is an associate professor and department chair of the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at the University of Florida. He is also associate director of the Center for Tourism Research and Development and an affiliate faculty member of the College of Natural Resources and the Environment. For the past 12 years, he has been one of seven social scientists from the Gulf of Mexico states serving on the Gulf of Mexico Fishing Management Council Socioeconomic Assessment Panel. For most of his 17 years at the University of Florida, he has overseen the Natural Resource Recreation Program within the department. He has also conducted research in five national park service areas, nine state parks and two national wildlife refuges.

For more information on how you can nominate someone for the William Penn Mott, Jr. Award, log on to www.nrpa.org