Let’s Recognize Ira Hutchinson

During February, we are celebrating both RT Month and Black History Month. It seems to me this is a very appropriate time to recognize Ira Hutchinson, one of the true pioneers in recreational therapy.

I hope university faculty will mark the occasion of RT Month and Black History Month by exposing students to the contributions Ira made to advance our profession.

There are a couple of resources I can recommend. One is a tribute to Ira written by David Park that appeared in the book Conceptual Foundations for Therapeutic Recreation (Austin, Dattilo, & McCormick, 2002, Venture Publishing, pp. 335-336.

The other resource is the video “Ira Hutchinson: African-American Pioneer in Therapeutic Recreation.” This video tribute appeared in the Recreation Therapy Video titled “Portraits of Pioneers in Therapeutic Recreation,” which is available as a free online service from the Indiana University Library. To access the video, type Recreation Therapy Videos into the search box or use the address: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/3378

Once you reach the list of 23 Recreation Therapy Videos, click on the title “Portraits of Pioneers in Therapeutic Recreation,” which will open up information on the video. Click on the information following the term location and the video will come up. The segment on Ira begins at 10:23 and ends at 17:40.