Jan Eisenhardt, Recreation Pioneer,
Gone But Not Forgotten

January 10, 2005 - A few years back when Park Board Planner Mark Vulliamy was doing research, delving into Park Board archives, he kept coming across the name of one Jan Eisenhardt. It seemed that this native of Denmark, born in 1906 and transplanted to Vancouver in the early 1930s, was at the heart of a wide variety of recreation and fitness programs and activities. This sparked Mark's interest who then looked further into the life and times of Jan where he soon discovered that this irrepressible, diminutive man had been a lynch pin in developing the Park Board's first community centre sports and arts programs for the unemployed and needy.

Mr. Eisenhardt was Supervisor of Recreation for the Vancouver Park Board from 1931 to 1934 and subsequently, from 1934 to 1939, the first Director of Recreation and Physical Education for the Provincial Education Ministry.

During the depths of the Great Depression, Jan Eisenhardt's leadership and innovation had a profound and positive impact on the lives of thousands of young British Columbians. While with the Park Board, he created Vancouver's "Winter Fieldhouse Program" providing low-cost recreation and fitness activities to the City's unemployed youth. Then, with the Education Ministry, he founded "Pro-Rec" which established similar programming through a network of "recreation centres" throughout the province. The post World War II campaign of community centre construction in Vancouver and elsewhere in the Province was inspired by these pioneering initiatives.

In the 1940s Jan led Federal programs for the armed forces while later taking his fitness ideas to the United Nations. In his later years Jan was recognized for his extensive fitness work with the Order of Canada, the Queen's Jubilee Medal, an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Malaspina University College and a Lifetime Achievement award from Sports Canada.

Recognizing his impact on Vancouver's fledgling recreation program, Mark Vulliamy thought it a good idea to bring Jan "full circle" back to where it all started.

In 2001, having ascertained that Jan Eisenhardt, at 95, was alive and well living in Quebec and still running races, the Vancouver Park Board invited him back to the city where it all began to honour this pioneer of public recreation. A special "I Ran with Jan" run in Stanley Park was organized with city-wide participation from playground program participants jogging beside the smiling nonagenarian. This was followed by a recreation facility tour and later, a City hosted reception at the Stanley Park Pavilion where Jan greeted old friends and colleagues.

Seventy years away from Vancouver and 7 decades of life never took its toll on Jan Eisenhardt. His brilliant blue eyes, quick smile and enthusiasm for life made it easy to still find the handsome young man he must have been in his youth when Vancouver was also in its salad days.

Jan was released from his earthly bounds on Christmas night, in his sleep, and Vancouverites who never had the pleasure of his company should be grateful for all he did to promote healthy living through fitness and the arts.

To view Jan Eisenhardt's Obituary please click here .

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