City names new Parks and Rec director
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on February 18, 2010 1:46 PM
Ruben Wall
Just more than a month after former Goldsboro Parks and Recreation director David Carter submitted his resignation, City Manager Joe Huffman announced the hiring of his replacement.
Ruben Wall, who currently serves as Durham's assistant Parks and Recreation director, will start work April 5, Huffman confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
And Wall says he is already excited about his future home's potential.
"It's ... a great opportunity for me and my family. The fact that Mr. Huffman has given me this opportunity, I'm just ecstatic," he said. "They are doing things to better the citizens there, so I'm looking forward to being part of that."
The city manager called Wall a "strong candidate."
"We're looking forward to working with him," Huffman said.
And Wall is looking forward to bringing nearly two decades of experience to the table when he arrives.
He remembers his first years in Durham, walking through inner-city neighborhoods to recruit children for soccer and baseball programs.
And if City Council members vote to move forward with construction of a new recreation center downtown, he looks forward to, again, reaching out to that demographic.
"I see the facilities that a city has as a true extension of the community," he said. "So I think it's exciting that a recreation center could allow us to touch young people who need a positive place to go and spend time learning about the positive things in life. That's part of what I have done my whole career."
Wall graduated from Shaw University with a Bachelor of Science in recreation and received his Master of Science in parks and recreation from N.C. Central.
In his current position in Durham, he oversees 50 full-time staff and 100 to 200 seasonal employees and is responsible for overseeing all the city's recreation and community centers and inner-city programming.
He and his wife, Nigel, have two sons, Ruben III and Noble.