Bonnie Noble will retire in April, 2016
- Details
- Published on Monday, 26 October 2015 18:20
- Written by Paul Gordon
Bonnie W. Noble, executive director of the Peoria Park District the last 24 years, announced Monday she will retire at the end of next April.
In 43 years with the Park District, including 19 years as an elected trustee before becoming executive director, Noble guided the district to growth in several areas as well as national recognition for the work, including four times being named a National Gold Medal Winner for park and recreation management.
“I have mixed emotions,” said Tim Cassidy, president of the Peoria Park District Board of Trustees. “Bonnie has served the park district will remarkable skill and integrity for 43 years and she will now be able to spend well-deserved time with her family, and for that I am happy for her. On the other hand, the park district is losing administrative leadership that is second to none.”
Cassidy did not say in a park district news release how the board will go about looking for Noble’s replacement.
Under Noble’s tenure, the Peoria Park District’s annual budget has grown from $14.5 million to more than $44 million. Noble oversees a staff of 172 full-time, 1,100 part-time and seasonal employees, and 12,000 volunteers, as well as more than 9,500 acres of parkland under public stewardship.
Noble initiated or help initiate several projects that benefit the community, some of which are ongoing with plans for continued expansion and growth.
Noble played a key role in forming the Power of Play Campaign, a partnership between the Junior League of Peoria, the Peoria Zoological Society and the Peoria Park District to develop and fund Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum that opened in June of this year. As part of a larger plan to revitalize the campus at Glen Oak Park, the children’s museum will, together with the planned expansion of Peoria Zoo and the many amenities already in the park, offer a daylong destination for families and school groups.
In the late 1990s, Noble facilitated the formation of Peoria Zoological Society (PZS), a fundraising society, which partnered with the park district on a $32.1 million capital campaign that culminated with the opening of Africa! and tripling the size of the Peoria Zoo in 2009.
Other projects developed under Noble’s leadership included the partnership between the Peoria Park District and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center to build the RiverPlex Recreation and Wellness Center and development of the Peoria Park District Youth Outreach and Intervention Department.
Noble’s involvement in developing a biking/hiking/jogging trail along the RiverFront and ultimately a trail system linking to the Rock Island Trail in Alta spanned more than 20 years with the final connecting link, the bridge over Knoxville Avenue, completed in 2013. Also, Noble oversaw the district’s administrative staff move into the former Lakeview Museum as the Glen Oak Pavilion underwent a transition into the Peoria PlayHouse. In 2013 the Board of Trustees honored her work by naming that building the Bonnie W. Noble Center for Park District Administration.
Noble has received many other honors, as well, including the Joseph Bannon Practitioner Award, the Jaycees Good Government Award, the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce Athena Award, and the Ray A. Neumann Tri-County Citizen of the Year Award, among others. She was the 2014 recipient of the Charles K. Brightbill Distinguished Alumni Award, awarded annually by the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in park and recreation management.
Noble has served the community in other ways.She is a member of the Junior League of Peoria, the Rotary Club of Peoria (where she was honored as a Paul Harris Fellow), the Illinois Association of Park Districts (serving as president of the same from 1984-85), the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Board (chairing the board for two years during her tenure), and the National Recreation and Park Association, where she served as parliamentarian. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Parks and Recreation in 2004.
