Jack Roberts is this year’s recipient of the Princeton Area Community Foundation’s Leslie “Bud” Vivian Award for Community Service.
Mr. Roberts has served the community for more than 40 years. The award was presented by the Community Foundation to Mr. Roberts at a surprise retirement party hosted by the Princeton Recreation Department on May 20.
Mr. Roberts was with the department from 1970 to 2011, and was its executive director for the last 21 years.
The health and well-being of all the town’s residents was his highest priority. He was a tireless advocate for the participation of girls and women in sports, and he extended the reach of programs to kids, starting the Dillon Basketball League, Platform Tennis Leagues and many pool programs.
As the primary steward of the community pool for all but three years of its life, he regularly rode his bike to the pool on opening day and retired having set in motion the future of a new pool to continue to serve the community.
Recognized state-wide, he was awarded the Michael B. Berman Award for Administrative Excellence by the New Jersey Recreation and Park Association in 1990.
Nominators noted that he “. . . embraced the entire Princeton community, reached out enthusiastically to engage everyone, regardless of athletic prowess or ability to pay, and created a lively community through recreation that has built strong ties and a wonderful town. We are all better off for having known Jack and been the lucky beneficiaries of his warmth and enthusiasm all these years.”
Jack has recommended that the following organizations share the $2,275 grant from the fund: the Princeton Pool Fund (for the new Community Park Pool), the Princeton Recreation Department (for one teen travel and one day camp scholarship), the Corner House Foundation, the D&R Greenway, and the Princeton Senior Resource Center.
The Vivian Award is made possible through the Vivian Memorial Fund, an endowment fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, which promotes philanthropy and builds community across Mercer County and central New Jersey.
