Board appoints new directors as others term out
Seated: David “Dink” Foerster, Barbara “Bobby” Arnold, Pattie Houlihan, Robinson “Rob” Frazier; middle: Kelly Varn, Michele Luthin, Agnes Danciger, Susan Ober, Mary Jarrett and Kate Hallock; back: Tim Burleigh, Laurie Jarvis, Tim Tyler, Matthew Cochran, Percy Rosenbloom, Stanton Hudmon, Eric Lycke and Michael Blackstone. Not present: Patrick Emmet, Emily Lisska, Elizabeth “Bitty” McRae, Joannie Newton, Mendy Thompson and Warner Webb. (Photo by Mark Krancer for Memorial Park Association)
Jacksonville, FL, January 15, 2020 – At its January 8, 2020 board of directors’ meeting the Memorial Park Association’s board of directors re-elected six members to serve another term as officers of the board. Those officers include Tim Burleigh, president; Mary Jarrett, executive vice president and chair of Board Affairs; Matthew Cochran, treasurer; Laurie Jarvis, secretary; Michele Luthin, vice president at-large and chair of the Development Committee, and Kelly Varn, vice president at-large and chair of Special Events.
At the nonprofit’s first meeting of the new year the board also approved the addition of four new directors and bid farewell to three directors.
The new directors, who will serve a three-year term, include Barbara “Bobby” Arnold, who returned to the board after a one-year hiatus following three previous terms; Patrick Emmet, chair of the Finance Committee; Kate Hallock, who will chair the Communications & Marketing Committee, and Eric Lycke, chair of the Construction Committee.
In addition to serving on the MPA board, Arnold was on the board of the Children’s Home Society for 30 years, is on the board of the Garden Club of Jacksonville, has volunteered at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, and is a member of the Altar Guild at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Ortega.
Emmet is a principal with Heritage Capital Group and managing director of Business Valuation, Inc. A four-time tennis All-American while in college, Emmet currently sits on the tennis committee at Timuquana Country Club. He is also a member of the Executive Cabinet of the American Heart Association.
Hallock recently joined the Jacksonville Historical Society as its marketing and communications director following seven years as managing editor of the Resident Community News Group. Previously, Hallock worked in marketing and public relations with Rockwell International and Mellon Bank, then cofounded a boutique technology marketing company in Pittsburgh, whose clients included Verizon Wireless and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Lycke is a registered landscape architect with over 36 years’ experience; he joined the Haskell Company in 1994 and has been instrumental, prior to joining the association’s board, with the restoration of the 96-year-old park’s center oval and its Master Plan Phasing Study since 2015. His resume includes over 800 landscape installations in 40 states, as well as in South America, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
“Memorial Park is a such a distinctive Jacksonville park,” said Burleigh. “It bodes well for the future of the association and the well-being of the park to have such dynamic, committed members in this all-volunteer organization.”
Departing board members include two who have termed out after serving three three-year terms – Pattie Houlihan, who had also served as MPA president, and Susan Ober – as well as Michael Blackstone, who served one term and was chair of the Landscape & Grounds Committee.
Established in 1986, the Memorial Park Association is a nonprofit with the mission to enhance, promote and preserve Memorial Park as the premier historic park in the City of Jacksonville. In 2012, Memorial Park Association enlisted Atlanta-based landscape architect David Sacks, to create a Master Plan to rehabilitate Memorial Park to its original grandeur. In 2018, MPA achieved its capital campaign goal of $1.5 million to implement this Master Plan.