Founding of the Journal of Leisure Research

It's hard to believe that 40 years have passed since the founding of JLR. This short article's purpose is to share some of the "trials and tribulations" that were addressed to get the JLR approved and launched as a publication of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA)NRPA was officially formed in New York City on August 13, 1965 following 26 years of efforts to unify the park and recreation field. The founders were the following organizations: American Institute of Park Executives, American Recreation Society, National Conference on State Parks and the National Recreation Association. On October 9, 1966, the NRPA Board of Governors received petitions for branches and recommended that the Society of Park and Recreation Educators (SPRE) be accepted as a branch. The reason for this short historical note is the fact that the campaign to develop a research journal became one the major priorities of SPRE in its formative years. (Lutzin, 1969)In 1966, 1 joined the NRPA staff as its first Director of Research. I was completing my doctoral studies at New York University under the supervision of Professors Edith Ball and Milt Gabrielson, with mentoring by one of the great pioneers in leisure studies - Jay B. Nash. One of my responsibilities included serving as Executive Director of the Society of Park and Recreation Educators (SPRE).Under the presidency of Professor Heeb, SPRE formed a Research Committee chaired by Professor Niepoth. The Research Committee in its Annual Report and Recommendations on November 28, 1967 stated that a research journal was needed and recommended that SPRE's Board of Directors petition the Board of Directors of NRPA to "authorize the Research Committee to proceed immediately with the development, publication and distribution of a research journal" (SPRE Minutes, December 1, 1967). Responding to strong leadership by SPRE Presidents Deppe ( 1968) and Sessoms (1969), NRPA approved the publication of a research journal with the first issue to be released in the winter of 1969.The SPRE Forum (1968) focused on the research journal in its May issue. It solicited input from researchers and educators for the journal's name. More traditional titles proposed were "Journal of Recreation Research", "Research in Recreation" and "Recreation Research Quarterly". Two broader titles were proposed: "Journal of Leisure Sciences" and "Journal ofLeisure Research". The SPRE Forum also solicited feedback on the journal's scope and content, evaluation criteria, editorial policies and personnel (i.e., Editorial Advisory Board, Editor and Consulting Editors). It was noted that guidelines from related journals were being reviewed as policies for the new journal were being developed. The SPRE Forum also invited the submission of articles for the inaugural issue. Subsequently, the title of Journal ofLeisure Research (JLR) was selected and I was appointed editor as part of my role as Director of Research for NRPA.As Editor, I appointed the following Associate Editors: Brian Barber, Neil Cheek, Walt Hopkins, Jack Knetsch, Leslie Reid and Betty van der Smissen. The editorial team worked diligently to produce, Volume 1, Number 1 which was formally published in the winter of 1969. The first issue contained four articles, five research notes and four book reviews. JLR was guided by a 25 member Editorial Advisory Committee consisting of 15 academic community representatives and 10 leaders from government agencies, associations and the private sector.The first issue included a statement by Sal J. Presioso, NRPA's Executive Vice President entitled "A New Venture". He stated that: "The purposes of this journal are to define in multi-disciplinary terms the challenges of leisure facing us today and in the future, to stimulate appropriate solutions for these challenges through scientific investigation, to disseminate these research findings and to describe the practical application and testing of research results. …