Mary Pakenas Gardner had a plan. In the spring of 1974, the two most important weekends of her life were just a few days away. She was to graduate from East Stroudsburg University (ESU) first and then a week later she would walk down the aisle on her wedding day. After the wedding, she and her husband, Dean Gardner, were all set to pack their bags and leave for the Peace Corps. <\/p>\n
She never expected that a phone call would change her life. A few days before graduating from ESU, Gardner received a call asking if she would be interested in interviewing for a teaching and coaching job at Bloomsburg University.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy immediate professional goal was to serve in the Peace Corps; not to coach or to teach, but Dr. Penny former chair of the physical education department, suggested that I at least take the opportunity to interview,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Despite her initial plans, when the job was offered, she accepted and her success in the classroom and as a coach led her on a career path that culminated with recognition as the first female honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the D2 Athletic Directors Association, which will be presented in June.<\/p>\n
Gardner\u2019s coaching career began after a record-setting career in the pool at ESU, which included recognition as the Warriors\u2019 Senior Female Athlete of the Year in 1974. She was a three-time national champion, winning titles and setting national records in the 50-yard and 100-yard breaststroke in 1971 and the 50-yard breaststroke in 1972. She held numerous pool and team records throughout her collegiate career and was a four-time EAIAW champion, and also lettered in field hockey.<\/p>\n
Her competiveness as an athlete helped form her coaching style. Gardner\u2019s swimming squads posted an overall record of 88-28, and she coached 44 swimmers to All-America honors and several individual national champions. She also served as the Huskies\u2019 first field hockey coach and registered a four-year record of 20-12-9.<\/p>\n
After several years of teaching and coaching, Gardner was encouraged by her colleagues to step into an administrative role as the University\u2019s Director of Equal Opportunity and Sport. She continued to coach and teach when she accepted the role of Associate Athletics Director a few years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the late 1980\u2019s and early \u201890\u2019s, I was very fortunate to work with administrators at Bloomsburg who not only supported women\u2019s sports, but also encouraged gender equity,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
When the Athletics Director retired in 1987, Gardner stepped in as the interim Athletics Director and six months later, she was appointed to the full-time position in July 1988. One of the first female athletic directors in the country responsible for both men\u2019s and women\u2019s programs, Gardner spent 23 years in the position before retiring in 2011. She was named National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletic (NACDA) Athletics Director of the Year for the northeast region in 2001. She was honored as the Division II Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) in 2003. Along the way, she directed more than $18 million in athletics facilities renovations on Bloomsburg’s campus.<\/p>\n
Gardner served on numerous NCAA committees including the DII Management Council, Committee on Women’s Athletics, DII Football Project Team, DII Legislation Committee, DII Membership Committee, NCAA Swimming and Diving committee as well as several NCAA regional ranking committees and numerous Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) committees. <\/p>\n
\u201cServing on national committees enhanced my professional growth and broadened my understanding of the governance structure of the NCAA,\u201d she said. The contributions of my fellow committee members were integral in setting policy for Division II and the opportunity to collaborate with my professional peers from across the country was invaluable to my career and rewarding to me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gardner attributes her success to supportive colleagues who helped her along the way. When she started her collegiate life at ESU she was a \u201cvery independent soul.\u201d Having lost both her parents when she was young, she found individuals at the university who became her support system and her family. <\/p>\n
\u201cESU was the foundation for everything I did in my life,\u201d she said. \u201cThe faculty and administrators at ESU were the family I did not have\u2014 their support and encouragement gave me the confidence to succeed in all aspects of my collegiate career.\u201d<\/p>\n
While working at Bloomsburg, she found people of like minds who believed in her and supported her every step of the way. She strongly credits coaches and administrators who continued to believe in the principles of fairness and equity for all sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t do anything by yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you have a strong network of intelligent, hard-working and good people surrounding you, differences of opinions can be expressed and compromises made, resulting in long lasting success.\u201d <\/p>\n
When Gardner received the news that she would be the D2 Athletic Directors Association Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, it did not take long for her phone to start buzzing with messages from coaches, former students and staff members, and administrative peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the greatest feeling to know people remember the work we did,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels like we made a difference and that\u2019s the most important part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forty-two years ago, Mary Gardner had her life mapped out. Today she smiles, feeling fortunate that things do not always go according to plan; but her journey was far more exciting than she had ever imagined.<\/p>\n
In retirement, Gardner continues to reside in Bloomsburg, Pa., with her husband Dean (\u201974). Dean is on his third career now \u2013 working with their son Tim as the owner of Gardner Homes, LLC. Their daughter, Kaitlyn works as a high school business teacher. Dean and Mary have 5 grandchildren, ages 1 \u2013 10 years, and Mary, aka Grandy, enjoys spoiling them daily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mary Pakenas Gardner had a plan. In the spring of 1974, the two most important weekends of her life were just a few days away. She was to graduate from East Stroudsburg University (ESU) first and then a week later she would walk down the aisle on her wedding day. After the wedding, she and her husband, Dean Gardner, were all set to pack their bags and leave for the Peace Corps.<\/span><\/p>\n She never expected that a phone call would change her life. A few days before graduating from ESU, Gardner received a call asking if she would be interested in interviewing for a teaching and coaching job at Bloomsburg University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,143,20,22,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletic","category-community","category-esu-success-stories","category-facebook","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13691,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13659\/revisions\/13691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}