COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M University’s recreation, park and tourism sciences department has named a new award for Terese Tarlton Hershey of Houston and has honored Dr. John V. Blackburn of Bryan with its annual alumni award.
Hershey, a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission since 1991, is the namesake of the new Terry Hershey Award for Excellence. The award will recognize significant contributions to development of recreation, parks and tourism by a practicioner, board member, elected official or volunteer.
The award was named for Hershey because of her work with parks and natural resources in her hometown of Houston and throughout Texas and the United States. Hershey is a founding member of The Park People, a Houston-area alliance that works to preserve parks and open spaces. A 1943 graduate of the University of Texas, she has been a member of the Texas Coastal and Marine Council and several other state councils. She has been a trustee for the National Recreation and Park Association and the National Audobon Society, among other groups, and has won many honors and awards for her efforts.
The award was announced and Hershey honored at the department’s annual banquet April 9 at Texas A&M. The award’s first recipient will be named in 1995.
The department’s alumni award went to Blackburn for his outstanding professional achievements, integrity, recognition among peers and support for the department. He is director of the City of Bryan’s Community Services Department.
Blackburn serves on several park and recreation boards. He was a departmental faculty member from 1974 to 1985 and is immediate past president of the Texas Recreation and Park Association. He received his doctorate in recreation resources development from Texas A&M in 1981. He has a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a master’s from the University of Georgia.
Also honored at the banquet was Ken Pagans, a Texas Agricultural Extension Service specialist in Corpus Christi. Pagans was honored primarily for his efforts to help local communities in the coastal region and across Texas develop park, marine and other community projects, in many cases without expenditure of local tax monies.
Pagans has also received extensive recognition for his work, including two major awards from the Texas A&M agriculture program — the Texas Agricultural Extension Service Superior Service Award and the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence.
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