A Special Tribute

Editor's Note: William H. Freeberg, professor emeritus and former chairman of the Recreation Department at Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), died in February. (See the March/April issue of the IPR for details.)

The following remarks are excerpts from the eulogy delivered by Judge Peyton Kunce on Feb. 26, 1987.

It is altogether fitting that in this, the memorial services for Bill, that one of his contemporaries should express the gratitude of all of us — his host of friends — his family — his community — the university and especially all the handicapped children whose lives he touched — for his life, his influence and contributions to our lives — for the strength, the hope, the visions he gave to all who knew him. And at the same time we express our deep-felt sorrow in his passing and of the vacancy that is created in our lives.

King David's son, Solomon, said in the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes that "for everything there is a season and a time for every activity: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to keep silence and a time to speak."

As our friend, Bill's time to die came this last Monday . . . this is surely a time to weep and to mourn. But it is also a time to speak of his countless virtues, a time to remember and be thankful that we each knew him and for what he contributed to our lives and the lives of so many others that will continue to benefit so very much now and in the future through what he built and founded during his lifetime, and for this heritage that he has bequeathed to his fellow man.

He seemed to be more at home with his outstanding work with the physically and mentally handicapped. He pioneered in this area by developing camps for them in the '50s and was the architect for the University's Little Grassy Lake Recreation Area — now Touch of Nature — where he was responsible for the building of five fully operational camps with 55 university educational programs involving five of its colleges. He developed a truly one-of-a-kind in the United States outdoor education laboratory that has trained hundreds of students and enriched numerous faculty programs over the years, and will forever be a monument to his dedication to higher education and to the problems of the handicapped. Touch of Nature remains as much an educational tool for the university as does the chemistry or any other laboratory on that campus.

William H. Freeberg

What probably aroused Bill most was the period when the administration seemed to be stressing the availability of dollars — income — from that facility rather than its potential in further development of the university's academic programs in furthering the expertise of faculty, teaching students, counselors, and the handicapped, and at the same time serving as one of the most enlightening public relations programs and area services ever developed in SlU's history.

There has not been a governor in the last 30 years or a southern Illinois legislator who hasn't visited and marvelled at Little Grassy's programs and potentials. Eunice Shriver, President John Kennedy's sister, was so overwhelmed by it when she visited with Bill at the camp that she persuaded him to take a leave of absence and work with the Kennedy Foundation in developing hundreds of recreation programs for the mentally handicapped nationwide, and assisting that foundation in the expanding and enriching of the Special Olympics Program that was begun in Chicago under Bill's guidance and direction, and has now become international in scope.

Bill's faith was not lifeless — he was a man of action. He put his beliefs — the teachings in his classrooms into practical actions. He taught by his words, but he taught all more clearly by his works — his deeds — his actions. He made things happen.

I remember back in 1954 when he, Bill Howe, and I started the Egyptian Association for the Mentally Retarded — the first thing we found missing in all of Illinois for the handicapped, in addition to classrooms, was a complete dearth of any organized outdoor or indoor recreation programs or facilities for them. Bill insisted that first year that we would have a summer camp for the mentally retarded at Little Grassy — now Touch of Nature. And Bill saw to it that such a residential camp did begin in an abandoned farmhouse on that acreage surrounded with pup tents and counselor students from Bill's classes, using Giant City Park picnic areas and the lake without a beach. We had a wonderful camping experience that has grown and developed into what it is today.

Touch of Nature grew and expanded throughout his tenure at the university. And after he retired. Bill found that those facilities and this program that had been so meaningful and which he had fathered were deteriorating, and he almost singlehandedly

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Special tribute

organized the Friends of Touch of Nature, who obtained over a million dollar appropriation from the State legislature, which was outside the university budget, to completely rehabilitate those facilities, and that work is now in progress. He spent tireless hours contacting friends throughout the State and bringing their influence on the legislature to obtain that legislation, and in traveling to Springfield to testify before legislative committees.

'We believe that the judge's remarks describe the qualities of Bill Freeberg, and the impact he had on the park and recreation field. He was truly a pioneer in parks and recreation and a superb individual.'

Ted Flickinger Executive Director Illinois Association of Park Districts

Thanks to Bill, a truly outdoor laboratory is being reborn to train and teach students, staff, and all handicapped that we can and do learn through pleasant recreational experiences, and that the handicapped can be helped to lead constructive, productive, fruitful, and normal lives — lives filled with meaning, with dignity and joy. Bill has done more with his life to teach us all that we have a duty to God and to mankind to bring to fruition the normalization of those who for too long have been termed "subnormal" than anyone I have known in my lifetime. Yes, Bill knew what our Lord meant when he told us that "since you have done it unto the least of these little ones, who are my brothers, you have done it unto me."

Every child in Special Olympics who runs the 50-yard dash — whether in a wheelchair or not — or throws a soft-ball, bowls a line, swims the breast-stroke and receives an Olympic medal or just a ribbon, and all of us who have the privilege of just helping out, and the dedicated professional athletes who made it work now and in the future throughout all the United States and soon worldwide, can continue to thank Bill Freeberg as an architect, originator and founder of that most rewarding and pragmatic program — what a great guy he was.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 30 May/June 1987