September 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 14

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Parks and Recreation Mourns the Loss of
Historian and Scholar Dr. Charles Hartsoe
By Jennifer Fulcher
C
hampion, ambassador, gentleman, leader, scholar, icon, friend " encyclopedia
of institutional information, " and " one of the great ones "
- these are the words others in the park and recreation field use to
describe Dr. Charles Edwin Hartsoe, who passed away on May 15.
The field and NRPA community
mourn the loss of Hartsoe - a
well-respected educator, historian
and advocate. Throughout his long
and distinguished career, he served
as an NRPA Life Trustee; past president
of the NRPA Board of Trustees;
executive director of the National
Recreation Foundation; founding
member and former chairman of the
Joseph E. Lee Memorial Library;
and an Ambassadors Club member.
" Charlie was an encyclopedia of
institutional information on the history
and evolution of the NRPA, "
says Kenneth Kutska, CPSI, executive
director of the International
Playground
Safety
Institute
and
past member of NRPA's Board of
Trustees. " He was not only a scholar,
but a gentleman who spread the
word of our profession. He [will be]
missed by me and others who had
the pleasure to be a friend through
the 1990s and 2000s. "
Hartsoe, a native of Bluefield,
West Virginia, served in the U.S.
Air Force before earning a Bachelor
of Science in recreation and youth
leadership from Springfield College
in Massachusetts, and then a master's
degree in recreation and parks from
University of Illinois. He entered the
field through an internship program
sponsored by NRPA, working as
an intern for Robert Crawford,
commissioner of recreation for
Philadelphia. After the internship,
Hartsoe continued working for
Philadelphia Parks and Recreation
as an administrative analyst,
according to a biography (tinyurl.
com/2p8vsr9r) by the American
Academy for Park and Recreation
Administration (AAPRA).
Hartsoe began working for the
National Recreation Association,
now known as NRPA, as assistant
executive director in 1960. He became
an historian who chronicled
the evolution of NRPA and its role
as a leader in the parks and recreation
movement. He was one of the
founding members of the Joseph
E. Lee Memorial Library and Archives
- a physical library for parks
and recreation historical and technical
documents located at the National
Recreation Association headquarters
in New York. When the
organization became NRPA, much
of the library's collection eventually
moved to NRPA's current headquarters
in Ashburn, Virginia.
Hartsoe left NRPA and returned
to the University of Illinois to lead
the undergraduate program for the
Department of Parks and Recreation
while working on completing
his Ph.D. In 1968, he became associate
professor of recreation and parks
at Penn State University; in 1971, he
14 Parks & Recreation | SEP T EMBER 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
Dr. Charles Hartsoe
became chair of the Department of
Recreation and Leisure Studies at
Temple University in Philadelphia.
From 1977 until his retirement in
1995, Hartsoe served as chairman
of the Department of Recreation
at Virginia Commonwealth University
where he was named Professor
Emeritus, according to the AAPRA
biography.
Throughout
this
time, Hartsoe
continued to serve as a park and recreation
leader. He was as a member
of the NRPA Board of Trustees from
1976 to 1978. He received the NRPA
Distinguished Professional Award in
1989; earned the Ralph C. Wilson
Award for Exemplary Volunteer Service
to NRPA in 2001; and became a
NRPA Life Trustee in 2004.
To read more about Hartsoe, visit nrpa.
org/InMemoriamCharlesHartsoe.
Jennifer Fulcher is NRPA's Online
Content Manager (jnguyen@nrpa.org).
PHOTO COURTESY OF NRPA ARCHIVES
https://www.tinyurl.com/2p8vsr9r https://www.tinyurl.com/2p8vsr9r https://www.nrpa.org/InMemoriamCharlesHartsoe https://www.nrpa.org/InMemoriamCharlesHartsoe
September 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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