Handmade mosaic plaque presented at NRPA’s national conference, October 2023
“Start with the green parts,” Victor Dover is always telling the DK&P team as they work on plans, whether for a single neighborhood or a whole city. He advocates for reuniting parks planning, city planning and urban design. At the local level, Victor was on the board of the Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade for many years, ultimately serving as its President. This week, he wraps up a key phase of service to the parks movement at the national level as a member of the National Recreation & Parks Association board of directors. With more than 60,000 members, NRPA is the leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to building strong, vibrant and resilient communities through the power of parks and recreation. Victor has most recently led NRPA’s Advocacy Committee, to help champion legislation expanding access to parks nationwide. He’ll continue to serve on the committee, pushing Congress to enact the Outdoors for All act.
Watch this one-minute video about Outdoors for All.
Victor was honored by NRPA yesterday with a handmade, one-of-a-kind mosaic tile plaque. Presenting the plaque, fellow board member Jose Felix Diaz made these remarks:
“When [former NRPA board chair] Jack Kardys first identified Victor Dover for the NRPA board, he knew that he was recruiting a savvy advocate for parks and public space, who knew how to bring together people from all walks of life; elected officials, government agencies, private developers, and civic advocates, to name but a few.
If you have worked with Victor, you know that he always gets the facts, he listens to everyone’s point of view, and he can guide a group to consensus and action plans so skillfully that everyone thinks it was a completely natural process.
By now, we have all seen Victor in action, working to advance parks at every level, through his professional work and through his role at NRPA-- writing op-ed pieces, stepping up to chair the Advocacy Committee, and bringing his full heart, soul and mind to the table every single time.
We, his fellow board members, have benefited from his generosity, his experience, his wise and calm counsel, even his example for those of us willing to follow his lead and cycle a new path or trail, and to create one where none previously existed.
And this might be most important of all. Where other people see a blank wall, Victor creates a door; he is all about seeing possibilities and making possibilities realities.
So even as he leaves the board, we know that he will stay close to the NRPA and we thank him for giving us his door building hardware to carry on!”
To hear Victor Dover speak about the importance of Parks, Greenways and Blueways, watch this short episode of Town Planning Stuff Everyone Needs to Know.