Story 29 - Eldon Park: Earliest Project Member Shares Memories at 91 Years

Milestone anniversaries are a way to reconnect with the past and recognize the incredible people that have come before that allowed NHRI to grow and prosper over 75 years. Eldon Park, NHRI alumni, shared a few of his memories in an email with us in celebration of our 75th Anniversary:

“Thank you for the news about the anniversary of the NHRRF. However, my memory is of The Lincoln Project with Drs. Hall and Clinton. Then known as The Lincoln Project. My years were 1952 to 1954. I am 91.

One set of my Lincoln Project experiences still remains vivid in my mind. My friend Eileen Mullarky - now Wills - and I were asked to work with a family in Northwest Lincoln. The mother and children lived where there were no sewers or indoor plumbing. All they had was a dilapidated outhouse.  

Eileen and I visited the mother and the children. We then visited the father in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. I still remember the sounds of the double steel entrance gates opening and then closing behind us. We talked to the father through the visitor bars. 

My team of William Devries and Dick Youngscap built a new outhouse, put it on a pickup truck and installed it.

The Lincoln Project provided me with many special friends. Sadly, few remain.

Everything about my four years at the U of N was special: Vice President of Student Council, President The BUILDERS organization, Battalion Commander of the NROTC in my senior year, President of The Innocents Society, and named OUTSTANDING NEBRASKAN by The Daily Nebraskan.

 I am delighted that what Dr. Hall began has continued and expanded.”

1954 Cornhusker Yearbook