GAINESVILLE - A professor in the College of Health & Human Performance won the prestigious William Penn Mott Jr. Award at the annual meeting of the National Society for Park Resources in October.

Dr. Stephen Holland, who is the chair of the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, received this award because of his outstanding accomplishments in the fields of recreation and parks, and service to NSPR.

"I'm honored and very humbled to be awarded," Holland said. "I thank the society for presenting this award to me."

Holland, who is on the Board of Directors for the NSPR, is one of two recipients in the nation. Holland was nominated by Jerry Hover, the director of Kansas State Parks.

"He called me and told me he was going to nominate me, and then in July I found out I was one of the recipients," Holland said.

The award is named after William Penn Mott Jr., a man who worked for the National Park Service as a landscape architect from 1933 to 1940 but devoted most of his later career to California’s local and state parks.