Tribute to Karla A. Henderson

Abstract

It is a long way from Coggon, Iowa to the base camp at Mt. Everest. Yet as we write this tribute to Karla Henderson that is exactly where she is heading. In many respects, her current journey is a metaphor for the long distance Karla has come in life. Growing up on a farm in northeastern Iowa, and being told as an 8-year-old that girls were not allowed to play Little League baseball, Karla learned her first lesson about social injustice. Unabashedly, she went on to set a single-game scoring record in girls high school basketball that stands in Coggon to this day, and otherwise distinguished herself as someone who, in her own inimitable way, would make a significant mark on the world.Karla earned a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Iowa State (1971) and worked for five years as a 4-H Youth Development Extension Specialist. She then earned a masters in education with an emphasis in guidance and counseling from Iowa State (1976), followed by a PhD in education with an emphasis in recreation, park, and studies from the University of Minnesota (1979). Her first academic posting was a split assignment as an assistant professor and recreation extension specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at Madison, a group of graduate students approached Karla and asked why voices were silent in studies. Without a satisfactory answer, she challenged her students to codesign a seminar in women's leisure (Henderson, 2013), thus marking the beginning of a 35 year scholarly agenda that has changed the way the field of recreation, park, and studies thinks about women, leisure, gender, feminism, diversity, and qualitative research methodology.After a brief stint as a Department Chair at Texas Women's University (1985-1987), Douglas Sessoms recruited Karla to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. As Karla recounts it, the next 17 years were her most rewarding. She prospered under Sessoms' tutelage, was tenured and promoted to professor, and eventually took her turn as Department Chair. When the program was dismantled in 2004 following Sessoms' retirement, Karla was invited to move next door to North Carolina State University, where she has continued her prolific teaching, scholarship, and service. Now, as Karla approaches her own retirement, it is fitting to recap the significance of her academic achievements.Given what Karla Henderson has accomplished in her career, she is refreshingly humble. Describing herself as Salieri to most everyone else's Mozart (Henderson, 2007), this mediocre talent has managed to author or co-author several books, including Leisure, Women, and Gender, 3rd edition (with Freysinger, Shaw, & Bialeschki); Camp Counseling (with Meier); Evaluation of Leisure Services: Making Enlightened Decisions, 3rd edition (with Bialeschki); The Noble Experiment: A History of NRPA (with Sessoms); Service Living: Building Community through Public Parks and Recreation (with Wellman, Dustin, & Moore); Dimensions of Choice: Qualitative Approaches to Research in Parks, Recreation, Tourism, Sport, and Leisure; Leisure Services, 7th edition (with Sessoms); Introduction to Recreation and Leisure Services, 8th edition (with Bialeschki, Hemingway, Hodges, Kivel, & Sessoms); and Volunteers in Leisure: A Management Perspective (with Tedrick). Karla has also published regularly in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, Women and Health, American Journal of Public Health, and the Journal of Physical Activity and Aging. All told, she has written over 200 juried articles and 250 other scholarly pieces.Karla has served the field in a number of leadership roles, including terms as president of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators (SPRE), president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Research Consortium, and president of the Academy of Leisure Sciences. …