Roland Chandler Jr., longtime parks and recreation supervisor and summer camp director, has died at 78
He collaborated on programs with children, parents, and neighborhood leaders, his wife said, because “he knew they cared about the quality of life in their communities.”
Roland Chandler Jr., 78, of Philadelphia, longtime supervisor for what is known now as the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, summer camp director and board president, veteran, mentor, and volunteer, died Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, of metastatic glandular cancer at his home in East Oak Lane.
An affable outdoorsman who grew up in North Philadelphia and also lived in South Philadelphia, Mr. Chandler traced his love of nature and camping to annual visits with family to rural Red Bank, N.J., and South Carolina as a boy. He worked part time at the city’s Parks and Recreation Department while studying social work and recreation at Lincoln University in the early 1960s.
He went full time in 1969 after a two-year hitch in the Army and spent the next 34 years, until his retirement in 2003, running recreation centers and playgrounds all over the city. He organized sports leagues and other programs, coordinated staffing, and focused on collaborating with children, parents, and neighborhood leaders, his wife, Priscilla, said, because “he knew they cared about the quality of life in their communities.”
Marty Jackson, a former colleague at Parks and Recreation, said of all his supervisors, “Roland was the best hands down.”
In 1993, Mr. Chandler was named director of Camp William Penn in Marshalls Creek, Monroe County, near East Stroudsburg. Over the next 10 years, he turned the underperforming city-owned residential summer camp in the Pocono Mountains into a crown jewel of the American Camp Association.
He improved the camp’s culture and increased enrollment by hiring new staff from around the world and updating the activities. He refined the operational policies and procedures, and traveled to staff recruitment job fairs in London and elsewhere.
“He saw that as a perfect way for the campers to be exposed to various cultures,” his wife said of the international staff. In a Facebook post, a former William Penn staffer from England said Mr. Chandler was a “lovely guy, very supportive.”
Later, he toured other camps in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland as standards chairman for the Keystone Section of the American Camp Association. In 2012, he earned the ACA’s Legends of Camping Award.
In 2004, Mr. Chandler joined the board of directors at the Kirkwood Camp and Retreat Center in Stroudsburg. He was elevated to board president a few years later and severed as volunteer camp director in 2008.
He joined the Oak Lane Community Action Association in the 1980s and served on its Housing Committee. He led the youth group at Oak Lane Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Alonzo Johnson called him “a mentor to me in ministry. This life was so much better with him in it.”
Roland Chandler Jr. was born Dec. 23, 1945, in Philadelphia. He graduated from Thomas Edison High School, was drafted into the Army in 1967, and did tours as a military police officer in Japan and San Francisco. He was promoted to sergeant and discharged in 1969.
He considered joining the Police Department after the Army but found a better fit working with young people in community-oriented programs for the Department of Parks and Recreation. “That clicked for him,” his wife said.
He married Diane Hatcher in 1970, and they divorced later, and remained friends. He met Priscilla Essex in 1978, and they married in 1980, and had a daughter, Dameta. They lived in South Philadelphia at first and moved to East Oak Lane in 1987.
Mr. Chandler enjoyed golf, fishing, cooking, photography, and constructing computers. He liked to read and travel, and said often: “I have traveled the world by reading.”
He marched for civil rights in the 1960s and acknowledged the names of high school classmates that are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. He took his wife to Paris for Valentine’s Day one year, and they visited Cuba in 2016.
He and his daughter made memorable outings to plays, concerts, sports events, and restaurants. He brewed homemade beer, played pinochle with family, and rarely missed Fridays with Frank Sinatra and DJ Sid Mark on the radio.
He championed education, personal growth, and family. “He taught me to value and respect life,” said his grandson, Tyrell. “I could talk to Pop about anything.”
His wife said: “People talk about his smile and personality. He was friendly and outgoing, and always saw the glass as full, not half full. He was a kind man. He was our hero.”
In addition to his wife, daughter, and grandson, Mr. Chandler is survived by six great-grandchildren, and other relatives. A grandson, Markeise, and two brothers died earlier.
A celebration of his life was held Oct. 14.
Donations in his name may be made to the American Camp Association, 5000 State Rd. 67, N. Martinsville, Ind. 46151.