Abstract
This case identifies several areas that sport administrators should consider in the management of their facilities, especially in facilities where temporary flooring surfaces are installed.
A large bouquet of red roses stands before you, sprinkled throughout with baby's breath in a beautiful blue vase (blue was Bea's favorite color). This gorgeous bouquet is in honor of Bea N. Orr. It is not by accident that red roses were chosen to honor Bea. Red roses signify love and passion…and Bea was love and passion.
Bea was born on August 26, 1930, in Huntington, West Virginia. She was one of eight children born to Robert Lee and Mary Elizabeth Staley Nelson. She grew up in Huntington and later attended Marshall University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education, Health and English. After graduating, Bea became a physical education and health teacher in Logan County, West Virginia. It was while teaching in Logan that she met and married Thomas Benson Orr, Sr. They had three children—Terri, Sherri, and Tom, Jr. While teaching and raising a family, Bea also continued her education and earned a Master of Arts in Administrative Education/Special Supervision. In 1967, Bea became the County Director/Supervisor of K–12 Physical Education, Health Education and Girls' Athletics. In 1976, she received a Lifetime Supervisory Certificate in K–12 Physical Education and Health. Bea described herself as a “professional educational practitioner”—a scholar who generates and implements educational activities…and she did it with love and passion.
As a supervisor of physical education and health programs, Bea made sure that all of her staff members were qualified, certified professionals. She recruited her teachers from colleges and universities all over the country. Bea loved and was passionate about her staff and took care of them. She found them places to live, she fed them, she helped them solve their problems, and she taught them along the way. It was not uncommon at dinner time to have three or four teachers around the table with Bea and Tom. After dinner, Tom would head to the family room, and Bea and her staff would sit around the kitchen table for hours sharing dreams and plans.
Bea continued to recruit staff until she retired in July 2010, after working almost 60 years in the public school system. The new recruits recently referred to themselves as “Bea's kids.” Little did they know that Bea has had a lot of “kids,” and she made them all feel special. Yes, Bea Orr was passionate, especially about her profession, on all levels.
Bea's physical education and health programs were recognized throughout the country. She achieved her goal of providing 30 minutes of daily, quality physical education for every elementary student in Logan County. She challenged her staff continually to try new programs or invent them. Together, they developed running clubs, O.R.K. (Olympic Records for Kids) Days, Soccer Saturdays, dance programs, and volleyball tournaments. One of her greatest achievements was the establishment of the Miss Softball American Program. She was passionate about Title IX because she believed that little girls should have the same opportunities in sports as little boys. While attending an AAHPERD convention in 1972, Bea saw an exhibit for the Miss Softball America Program. This program, however, was an incorporated franchise and was only for Orange County, California. Bea argued with those in charge until she convinced them to let her start a pilot program in Logan. The next year, in 1973, the program started, and later that year the Logan teams flew to California to compete with the other California teams. Girls' softball continued to grow under Bea's leadership until they finally outgrew the Miss Softball America Program and became sanctioned by the Amateur Softball Association of America. Recently, Bea was so proud when she watched all three area softball teams play for the West Virginia State Championships.
On the state level, Bea fought for physical education and health programs. Her extended family was the West Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (WVAHPERD) professionals. She believed that teachers needed to be involved in their professional organizations and worked to get her staff involved at the state level. She did it all in the WVAHPERD organization, including being president in 1972–1974. In 1978, she became passionate about Jump Rope for Heart. Its start in West Virginia was initiated by Bea, who had heard about the program starting in Wisconsin and Illinois. She promptly set up a meeting with the American Heart Association in Charleston and requested to start the program.
In 2003, Bea became the first Executive Director of WVAHPERD, a position she still held when she died. In 1975, she was awarded the WVAHPERD Honor Award, and in 1976, she was the recipient of the Ray O. Duncan Award, which is the highest award given in the organization. In recognition of her service to the profession and her dedication to young professionals, the Bea N. Orr Student Award was established in 1985 to award an outstanding college or university student annually. Perhaps the greatest testament to Bea's commitment and continued service to WVAHPERD, however, comes in the form of Presidential Citations. Since 1981, Bea has received 27 Presidential Citations for her work in WVAHPERD.
Bea Orr's service continued at the district level when she became Midwest District (MWD) President in 1975–1976. Following her term as president, she served as MWD Representative to AAHPERD from 1979–1983. During that period of time, she was honored by receiving the AAHPERD Honor Award and the MWD Honor Award in 1982.
In 1983, professionals from around the country approached Bea and asked her to run for president of AAHPERD. She agreed, and they campaigned with a slogan of “Buzzing with Bea in '83.” She won the election and became only the second public-school professional to hold that office in the organization's 100-year history. At the President-Elects Conference that year, Bea named her elects “The A Team,” a name that has united that group of professionals throughout the years. “The A Team” was the group that was to inspire and challenge their fellow colleagues to become professionally involved as AAHPERD started its “Mission for the Future,” the theme of the Centennial Year. As president of AAHPERD, Bea met Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the spokesperson for the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sport at the time. This meeting helped open up the communication between the two organizations. During the 100th anniversary celebration year, Bea also initiated a program she called “AAHPERD—One on One,” which provided professionals with the opportunity to reach out to another colleague, student, or friend who might not be professionally involved.
Bea had many unforgettable moments and met many unforgettable friends during her time with the Alliance. As Bea traveled around the United States representing AAHPERD, she also received many honors, including being made a Lieutenant Colonel of the State of Georgia by the governor of Georgia, a North Carolina “Tarheel” awarded by the governor of North Carolina, and a Kentucky Colonel awarded by the governor of Kentucky. As a result of her work with AAHPERD and within the profession, Bea was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Maine, in May 1988.
Looking back at Bea's bouquet, we see love and passion! We cannot, however, forget the baby's breath. It represents anyone who has been touched by Bea's love and passion. We are all a part of Bea's bouquet… she would not have it any other way. It is now our time to spread the love and passion that Bea shared with us.
On March 30, 2013, at the age of 74, oral history researcher and writer Sharon Van Oteghen died after a short bout with pancreatic cancer, at the Methodist Hospice Center in Memphis, Tennessee. She was born on January 27, 1939, in Rock Island, Illinois, and graduated valedictorian of the 1957 class of Moline High School. As the first person in her family to achieve high academic honors, Sharon continued her education in the Women's Physical Education Department at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. I first met Sharon at that university. She was a serious student who worked diligently on every assignment. A highlight of our undergraduate years was when our professor, Janet Atwood, offered us summer-camp counseling jobs at Camp Marlyn in Andover, New Hampshire. Sharon spent wonderful summers at Marlyn teaching tennis and planning many Sunday Chapel services. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1961. Her university honors included membership in the Alpha Lambda Delta and Pi Lambda Delta Honor Societies.
Sharon's first job at South High School in Minneapolis was memorable because her co-teacher was Jeanne Arth, the 1959 Wimbledon Doubles champion. Later, in 2002, Sharon and I would complete an oral history on Jeanne Arth and accompany her to her induction into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Sharon earned her master's degree in 1968 at the University of Iowa. In 1973, she received her Doctorate in Physical Education at Indiana University. She was honored with the John H. Edwards Award, the highest award given to five graduate students each year.
Sharon served the majority of her professional career at the University of Memphis, where she was recently honored for 36 years of teaching. During that tenure, much of her research focused on conducting and transcribing oral histories of retired AAHPERD presidents and National Honor Award recipients. Our early days at Iowa established the foundation for this extensive oral-history work. While I was a 1962 BA and 1967 MA Iowa graduate, Annie Clement, National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) president in 1988–1989, was completing her doctorate at Iowa. It was Annie, as NASPE president, who gave us a grant of $3,000 to begin the oral-history project of retired AAHPERD presidents and National Honor Award recipients. Additional support came from the University of Memphis Oral History Research Office under the direction of Dr. Charles Crawford, and from my institution, Saint Catherine University.
Over the years, Sharon and I completed 55 oral histories and were privileged to meet wonderful, remarkable professionals. While most of the initial interviews and transcribing took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as these leaders passed on, we used our research to write the In Memoriam columns that have appeared in various issues of JOPERD. As long as she was able, Sharon stayed involved with our latest project—a collection of oral histories of women leaders in sport, some of whom are AAHPERD past presidents, whose support of Title IX changed women's sport history. The project, co-authored with Diane LeBlanc, Director of Writing at St. Olaf College, is nearing completion. Sharon's work continues.
As her friend of over 53 years and her research partner of 25 years, I can say Sharon was a strong Christian woman dedicated to health, wellness, physical education, and clean living. She was extremely responsible and hardworking. From 1996 to 2003 she was appointed co-chair of the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Health in the State of Tennessee. She was also appointed a Tennessee delegate at the White House Conference on Aging in 1995, and an alternate delegate in 2005. Although she was committed to all of her professional activities, Sharon especially enjoyed her oral-history work and writing about the accomplishments of others.