The 2024 Richard S. White Friend of The Trails Award
The Richard S. White Annual Friend of The Trails Award
Two years ago in February, TFNU lost one of our own. Former Trail Champion and TFNU Board Member, Richard White.
Richard truly was a friend to the trails. His passion for the outdoors was obvious in his early years, as he would work on the building and maintenance of local trails, and later became instrumental in fundraising, as he was one of the few people we knew who, with one call, could find money needed for a particular project or improvement.
Richard was also credited as being one of the first to volunteer for almost anything. Richard’s decades of unselfish service helped create Weber County’s outstanding public network of paved pathways and natural surface trails.
Richard’s life made such an impact on the people he knew and had contact with in regard to the trails, but also the patients to whom he served as cardiologist to. It was always about the heart.
To further the life and inspiration of Richard S. White, Trails Foundation of Northern Utah along with his family have curated and put into place an annual Richard S. White Friend of the Trails Award. This award will be given to the person/or persons who have continued Richard’s legacy with significant and lasting service that has created a culture where all have places to walk, run and ride as they enjoy nature and connect with their neighbors in Northern Utah.
The winner of the Richard S. White Award will receive $500 to be donated to the nonprofit organization of their choice that supports the mission of TFNU. Winners will be announced at the TFNU Spring Trail Mixer in April.
Successful nominees for the Richard S. White Award will have done significant work in any one of the following area’s:
Planning, constructing and maintaining public pathways, trails and related open spaces
Encouraging outdoor recreation and active transportation for personal well being
Protecting and preserving public access to trailheads, mountains, rivers, open spaces and public lands
Educating, advocating and raising awareness for proper trail etiquette for all trail users
Creating community pride as neighbors interact and come to appreciate their natural environment
Nominations for this award will open to the public on February 9th and will close on March 15th.
Previous Award Winners
The 2022 (and first) recipient of this award was David Stuart. David has been building and maintaining the trails in Northern Utah for decades. After spending many years looking for ways to preserve access to the mountains for the community to use, he was eventually contacted by Ogden City to work with a group of people, that included Gib Wallace, to begin looking for ways to build trails and to place trailheads strategically throughout the city. That partnership resulted in many of the trails we know and love coming together. These include Jump Off Canyon, Bonneville Shoreline, Birdsong and many others.
When presented with the award, David said, “I am humbled and blessed to receive the first annual Richard S. White Friend of the Trails Award. Richard was a good friend and I pray that I can continue doing my small part to carry on his legacy of making the trails enjoyable to everyone who used them. Thank you for this great honor.”
The 2023 recipient was Jerome Berg. Jerome has been an active participant in the local trail development for decades. As the 2023 President of Ogden Nordic, Jerome is also an active outdoor enthusiast. He has worked closely with North Fork Park, and Ogden Trails Network and was recently working on an initiative to assess North Fork Park trail usage through a series of counters placed strategically in the park so that we can better plan and support our trails.
When asked what this award means to him, Jerome replied, “This award has very special meaning to me because it’s named after someone I’d admired very much and that helped mentor me into investing back into the community. Dr. White along with Jay Hudson, Gibb Wallace, David Stuart, and Michael Joseph encouraged many of us and now that I’m a little older, I’m seeing the benefits of how that community spirit has spread to so many passionate and caring community members and volunteers.”
2022 Award Winner Dave Stuart
2023 Award Winner Jerome Berg
