New Parks and Rec director has long history with Pontiac

Although certainly not as dramatic as Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines in World War II, Gary Beckman has made his return to Pontiac. The affable Beckman has taken over as the new director of the city's parks and recreation department.

“I spent half my life in Livingston County and the Pontiac area, with that it's kind of become my hometown,” Beckman told the Daily Leader recently. “My wife's family is from here and the opportunity arose and here we are, we're back.”

Beckman, his wife Jocelyn, and the family moved back to town after spending the past few years in Missouri where Beckman grew up.

Beckman filled the void left by Taylor Baxter who recently accepted a position as city administrator for Clinton.

Beckman arrived in in Pontiac in 1995 as the Boys & Girls Club program director.

“I had no clue what the Boys and Girls Club was, I wasn't familiar with them at all,” Beckman said.

He was familiar with the YMCA and what it does, having worked at one in the Chicago suburbs after graduating from Truman State University.

“I worked with adult fitness and health and with youth,” Beckman said. “It's now coming back to that only with a much wider lens that incorporates every age group. One of the appeals coming back was to challenge myself and work with a wider range of people and get to see families grow."

It wasn't much later after arriving in Pontiac that he accepted a job as executive director at the Boys & Girls Club in Fairbury. He returned to Pontiac in 2001 as executive director before leaving to Missouri in 2017.

There have been a number of changes in the time he was away, but Beckman is looking forward to the challenges of what he has here. Among the changes are the golf course and the ice rink. These require aid from other departments, as well.

“All the different departments have been great to work with, helpful and open to all my questions,” Beckman said. “Everyone has been willing to sit down and talk and figure out how to make this flow and make it better.”

Beckman was somewhat familiar with the new changes because of family visits, especially during the holidays. He said that seeing the ice rink at night, especially during the holidays, is like seeing a Norman Rockwell painting.

What he plans to focus on when everything gets settled is finding gaps in programming and trying to fill them. He is looking at improving all health matters, including physical, mental and emotional.

“People know me and I know them, (they) are comfortable coming up to me about things they want to see happen,” Beckman said. “I encourage them to do that because the more we have conversations, the more we communicate and the more we can find out what it is we can enhance and fill in those gaps.”

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: New Parks and Rec director Gary Beckman already familiar with Pontiac