Bayard Alcorn, a Salisbury High School alum, was recently awarded the Order of the Longleaf Pine for his work with the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF).

The award was given during the program’s 30th anniversary celebration. It is the North Carolina governor’s highest honor for persons who have made significant contributions to the state.

“It was a very pleasant surprise,” Alcorn said of the honor, adding, “It is humbling and very rewarding at the same time. I think one of the things that meant a lot to me is that people I worked with in our agency and our division were the folks that made the nomination and brought it forward so that recognition by my coworkers really made it special.”

Alcorn managed the PARTF program for many years, during which nearly 1,000 matching grants were awarded to over 400 local governments to acquire land and build facilities for public parks. Grants have been awarded in all 100 counties.

“It has been very rewarding to see public parks either be established for the first time or enhanced through the parks and recreation trust fund,” Alcorn said. “An important part of it is the partnership between the state and the local government, through time, the local governments have contributed almost $2 for every $1 awarded by the state. So there is really a local investment in parks.”

He worked for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation to provide information for selecting the best park projects across North Carolina to communities both large and small. The grants awarded represent a $700 million investment in public parks.

Many of those investments are in Rowan County.

“Bell Tower Green is a project where the PARTF helped buy the land for the park to really get it started,” Alcorn said.

According to Alcorn, it has not been limited to Salisbury.

“In Spencer, the Fred and Alice Stanback preserve is a project that received a couple of grants first to buy the land and then to help develop the public facilities that are there,” Alcorn said. “Currently, the Woodleaf community park has gotten its start with a PARTF grant. There have been a number of grants (in Rowan County).”

Alcorn and his family moved to Salisbury when he was in junior high. Much of his family has been there ever since. He was a member of the Salisbury High School Class of 1971. His sophomore year was the first year of desegregation.

He found success on the basketball court under coach Bobby Farr. They won the Western North Carolina High School Association championship and beat eventual NCAA Player of the Year David Thompson.

For his part, after working for the N.C. parks and recreation agency, he retired in 2013, before coming on in a consultant capacity until 2022. Alcorn is married to his wife Sally. They have three children: a daughter and twin boys.

“We have grown up as a family going to parks and doing things outside,” Alcorn said. “Just recently, we visited Yellowstone, and both my sons have ridden across the U.S. on a bicycle with a program called Bike and Build that supports affordable housing. I think our family really values those experiences. As the kids grew up in parks, that continued to be our interest.”