James
A. ColleyJames
A. ColleyJames A. Colley (1933-2003) received the Pugsley Medal in 1993. He was born and bred a farm boy. He grew up the proud son of a farmer in rural Alabama and learned the values of hard work, love of family and strong sense of community. These values stayed with him throughout his 40 years as a parks and recreation professional.
After high school, Colley served his country as a marine and had orders to go to Korea at the time the armistice to end that war was signed. After his honorable discharge, he aspired to be a coach and obtained a BS degree in health, physical education and recreation. He began his career as a "one man department" at a YMCA in Tarrant, Alabama.
After returning to college to earn a MS degree in recreation and park administration from the University of Georgia, his career consisted of positions with the Douglas, Georgia, Parks and Recreation Department; deputy executive director of the Georgia Recreation Commission; director of Parks and Recreation in Norfolk, Virginia; and finally in 1979 director of the Phoenix Parks, Recreation and Libraries Department from which he retired in 2001.
Through Colley’s extraordinary leadership, the Phoenix department became one of the outstanding systems in the US. When Colley arrived in Phoenix, the community had indicated support for creating a Mountain Park Preserve system. From that beginning, Phoenix during his tenure added mountain and desert parks totaling more than 30,000 acres. More than 3,000 acres of what Colley like to call in his distinctive southern drawl, "flatland parks" also were added. As director, he was responsible for the successful passage and administration of local natural resource and park preservation bond elections totaling $135 million. He also managed the land exchange for the historically designated Indian School property that became a 74-acre urban park focused on Native American culture.
The extensive mountain preserve lands were complemented by the addition of dozens of swimming pools, recreation centers, libraries, bike trails, and special park facilities. When he retired, the department’s budget was over $115 million. Although the facilities will be a tangible, enduring feature of his legacy, Colley wasn’t only a facility person. He loved and cared for people; and people meant programs, lots of programs. Major special events in downtown Phoenix including the Fabulous Phoenix 4th of July, the Electric Light Parade, and Sunday on Central, were nurtured and developed under his leadership.
The programs emanating from Colley’s commitment to the importance of nurturing young people to grow and develop into successful citizens became a national model, copied by cities across America. Phoenix was the first major city parks and recreation department to integrate recreation, employment services and juvenile crime prevention services targeted at teenagers when they launched this program in 1980. The department expanded this integrated approach across the city and it became one of the most highly regarded providers of youth services in the country. A departmental response to the emergent crisis in juvenile crime in the 1980s and 1990s was to establish the nation’s largest after-school program, Phoenix Activity City (PAC), and over 160 schools, parks and churches became PAC sites. The result was that juvenile crime between 3 pm and 6pm was substantially reduced in Phoenix.
Colley was unequivocal in his belief that excellent park and recreation services are central to the quality of life of all Americans. The philosophy and structure of Phoenix’s services in general, and youth services in particular, were widely acclaimed as national models that other cities emulated. Colley stated, "We in the park and recreation profession have always taken pride in the enrichment we bring to people’s lives... My staff say we are becoming counselors and social workers. That’s fine, I believe we should be... We respond as best we can to whatever people need. I would not have a problem with my department being called a Department of Community Services." Whereas many directors tend to discourage innovative, risky programs because of their potential for adverse publicity, Colley said to his devoted staff, "Show me a way we can get it done."
Colley was president of the National Recreation and Park Association, the Virginia Parks and Recreation Association, the Georgia Parks and Recreation Society and the American Academy for Parks and Recreation Administration. During the 1990s, he served as an adjunct faculty member and mentor to students in Arizona State University West’s Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, which established a memorial scholarship in his name. Under Colley’s leadership, the Phoenix department twice won the National Gold Medal and he personally received just about every award bestowed by the National Recreation and Park Association, culminating in the extraordinary recognition of being appointed a Life Trustee of the organization.
The following two quotes by fellow Pugsley Medal recipients from among many entries in the guest book at Colley’s memorial service, summarize the legacy he left for the field and those who were fortunate enough to have know him:
Jim Colley, my friend, mentor and leader, was truly a "professional’s professional". His passion for our field was highly contagious. All who came in contact with him always came away rededicated to serving humanity in a more wholesome and fun way. His service to NRPA was truly outstanding in every way. I shall miss him but his legacy will live on forever. (Dean Tice, Pugsley Medal 2002.)
Jim was not only a consummate professional; he was also a consummate human being. He "walked his talk" in terms of demonstrating compassion for his fellow professionals, those he served and, frankly, anyone else with whom he came into contact. The line between what he did for a living and how he lived his life was non-existent. As the old saying goes, to know him was to love him. We will miss him personally and the example he set for us all as a leader and a great human being. We can keep Jim’s memory alive by trying to be just a little more like him in everything that we do. (Chris Jarvis, Pugsley Medal 2000.)
Throughout his career, Colley dreamed of a place where children could experience nature, perhaps for the first time. It would be a place where their social and economic backgrounds didn’t matter, a place where children could just be children. His dream was realized with the establishment of Camp Colley, an outdoor and wilderness camp for children and families located on a 30 acre site surrounded by national forest. Here the Phoenix PARD provides structural supervised recreation opportunities, with particular emphasis on meeting the needs of teens and adults with disabilities. At an elevation of 6,700 feet on the Mogollon Rim about 50 miles north of Payson, the camp provides a welcome summer escape from searing valley temperatures.
John Hultsman and Dale Larson contributed to this biography.