When Ted Deppe graduated from Baraboo High School (Wisconsin) in 1939, his primary goal was to enroll at the University of Wisconsin that fall with expectations of becoming a physical education teacher and a coach and making the basketball team. In his sophomore year, he made the basketball team and was a member of Wisconsin's 1941NCAA Championship team. As a part time job, he worked as a recreation leader in various community centers in Madison and Howard Danford, Director, spent countless hours talking with him about the field of recreation. He became convinced that he would rather major in recreation but the U. of W didn't offer a major in recreation at that time. In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and became a B-24 pilot.  

After completing his B.S. and M.S. degrees in physical education, Ted spent his first year in the profession as Assistant Superintendent of Recreation at Beloit, Wisconsin. Then he was invited to become the first Supt. of Recreation for a newly created department in Superior, Wisconsin. Over the next three years, he got to know L.H. Weir well and he persuaded Ted to quit his job and enroll at Indiana University to be with Garrett Eppley and Reynold Carlson. Upon completion of his Doctor of Recreation degree in 1953, he was asked to join the faculty for a year or so. He would spend his next 34 years there.

He became actively involved in many professional organizations. He served on NRA, the Associations National Advisory Committee on Recreation, Training and Placement of Recreation Personnel. This committee pioneered the need for standards and guidelines for undergraduate and graduate education in recreation, established a code of ethics for the profession, and expressed the need for registration and certification of professions in the field. He was elected President of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators (1967) and served as a member of NRPA's Board of Trustees (1968-1971).

In 1966, Ted became Chairman of the Department of Recreation at Indiana University. Early in his administration, he and Howard Deislin, Dean of Purdue's Cooperative Extension, joined forces to hire a Recreation Specialist to work with cities and counties throughout Indiana.

As Chair of the Department and Chairman of over 50 doctoral committees, he became aware of the need for students and faculty to publish their research efforts. He met with several members of the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration and asked whether the association might sponsor a research journal. With positive feedback from those present, he asked Joe Bannon, University of Illinois, to join as a co-editor and the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration was created. The purpose of the Journal was to bridge the gaps between research and practice for administrators, educators, consultants and researchers.

Ted's major areas of interest and expertise were in management and administration wit ha particular emphasis in budgeting and finance. He authored a text, Management Strategies for Financing Park and Recreation, which was published in 1983. Prior to that, he co-authored with Reynold Carlson and Janet MacLean a text Recreation in American Life, published in 1963.

Ted was a Founding Fellow of the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration (1982) and the American Academy of Leisure Sciences. He received the Outstanding Service Award (1966), Man of the year Award (1969), and Distinguished Life Award (1987) from the Indiana Park and Recreation Association; he served as President of this organization from 1969-1970. In 1975 he received the Distinguished Fellow Award from the Society of Park and Recreation Educators. He spent 6 months in New Zealand in 1976 on a Senior Fulbright Award.

In 1987, Ted retired after spending 34 years at Indiana University with his last 21 years serving as Chairman of the Department. 

At the Helm

by Ruth V. Russel 

Source: Academy Bulletin

The sail cuts through the ominous sky with the determination of an academic department chair on his way to solve a ticklish problem. As the fickle wind shifts, the sail at first flutters with uncertainty, then adjusts, and quickly resumes with all of its original strength. The department chair, veered from his charted course by a piece of new information about the problem, quickly redefines his task, and continues with the same verve and accuracy as before. His goal - not necessarily to sail a straight course - was to enjoy the adventures of the trip.

For nearly half a century Dr. Ted Deppe was both the sailor and the academic department chair. And the parallels in how he handled both these "boats" are many. While he is now sailing the salty seas off the eastern coast only, when he was also at the helm of Indiana University's Department of Recreation and Park Administration, he was there as well as master navigator, with an eye for bearings in both the stars and on the land. He commanded the tiller with a determined, yet gentle hand. He prepared new sailors with wisdom and enthusiasm. And most telling, he loved both journeys. I know this because I was one whom Ted took under his wing, and while I've never been on his ocean going boat (I did suggest we conduct my doctoral oral qualifying exam there, however, thinking it might soften the examining committee -- to no avail I must add), I sure do credit him for getting me into the higher education boat.

Ted Deppe's career in the recreation higher education "fleet" began in 1953, with his appointment as Assistant Professor at Indiana University. Before then, his training in "seamanship" had included four degrees (B.S. in Physical Education at the University of Wisconsin in 1946 through a Doctoral degree in Recreation at Indiana University in 1953), six years as a community center and playground leader with Madison, Wisconsin Public Schools, and five years as Superintendent of Recreation for Superior, Wisconsin. There was even a three-year interruption to be a B-24 pilot during World War II.

Once he got his "sealegs," he commanded a career that make him one of the most outstanding leaders in the parks and recreation fleet. Ultimately Ted guided the ship's helm from the chair's position in the IU Department of Recreation and Park Administration for 21 years from 1966 to his retirement in 1987. But there were other accomplishments too: president of the College Recreation Association (1956-57), multiple office-holder in the National Recreation and Park Association (1959-1966), president of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators (1967-1968), Trustee for the National Recreation and Park Association (1968-1971), and president of the Indiana Park and Recreation Association (1969-1970).

For my generation of sailors, however, we best knew of Ted Deppe through his books. In collaboration with Rey Carlson, Janet MacLean, and Jim Peterson, Recreation in American Life (1972), which was re-editioned as Recreation and Leisure, the Changing Scene (1979), became our basic manual. Later, based on research in 27 cities and counties in the U.S. and Canada, Management Strategies for Financing Parks and Recreation (1983), guided us as well. Along with Dr. Joseph Bannon, in 1983 Ted was the co-founding co-editor of the Academy's Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. Other "foundings" include Founding Fellow in the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration (1982), as well as in the Academy of Leisure Science (1980). He also received SPRE's Distinguished Fellow Award in 1975 and a Senior Fulbright Award to New Zealand in 1976.

Thousands of park and recreation educators and practitioners across North America owe something of their "setting sail" in the Profession to Ted Deppe. And we look forward to his continuing interest in us and guidance.

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