Leland Park, a longtime Davidson resident and retired Davidson College librarian who helped lead last year’s “Save the Library” campaign in town, will receive the town’s 2011 Jack Burney Community Service Award on Wednesday morning, Nov. 23. The 9 a.m. ceremony at Town Hall is open to the public and will include the award presentation and reception, with music by the North Mecklenburg Moravian Band.

The award is named for the late G. Jackson Burney, who served the town in planning and communications and other roles, and started the first town newsletter. Since 2004, it has honored Burney and those whose “unselfish service” benefits the Davidson community.

Leland Madison Park graduated from Davidson College in 1963, and the following year got his master’s degree from Emory University in Atlanta. For a year, he was a reference librarian at Charlotte Public Library, then did a two-year stint as a captain in the Army. He moved back to Davidson in 1967 to work as a reference librarian at the Davidson College Library, then went on to get a Ph.D. in library science from Florida State University in 1974. After a time as the college library’s assistant director, he was named director in 1975. He retired from the job 39 years later, in 2004.

Mr. Park was a member of the Davidson Library Task Force last year, helping to plan and carry out a fund-raising campaign that kept the branch on the Village Green funded during a county budget crisis. Working quietly behind the scenes, he personally sold dozens of the engraved bricks that the campaign used to raise funds.

“Leland is the very model of what this town is all about,” Davidson Commissioner Connie Wessner wrote in a nomination letter. “In a town full of characters, it is his depth of character that inspires and amazes.”

Downtown Manager Kim Fleming, who co-chaired the library fund-raising effort, added: “Leland Park truly lives his life for the service of others and this town which he loves so much. He seeks nothing in return, only the betterment of the places around him.”

He joins a long list of fellow Davidsonians who have been honored with the Burney Award. They include 2010 winner Ralph Quackenbush, a former downtown business owner and longtime local volunteer. Other past winners were Jane Ellithorpe; Scotty Nicholls; Baxter and John Fisher (of Fisher Farm fame); sisters Evelyn Carr and Annie Mildred Lowerey; Bill Mayhew, a former commissioner and postmaster; and John and Paula Kelton.

RELATED LINKS

See Brenda Barger’s Nov. 17, 2011, Around Davidson column with more about his award.

Read coverage of previous award winners on DavidsonNews.net, under the Jack Burney Award tag.

See a full list of previous winners on the Town of Davidson website.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Leland Park also has been a longtime friend of DavidsonNews.net was one of the first readers to provide financial support through voluntary subscription payments. Thanks Leland, and congratulations.]

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