Recreation Director Gary Bannon retires after 34 years with Dover

posted on 4/26/2024

The City of Dover bids farewell to its long-time faithful servant, Recreation Director Gary Bannon, retiring at month's end after 34 years of service to the city and its citizens. 

Colleagues, friends, and family joined Bannon on Thursday afternoon for a retirement sendoff at the McConnell Center, sharing laughs and stories, and reminiscing of Bannon’s storied career with Dover. 

Mayor Robert Carrier presented him with a key to the city and read a proclamation, recognizing Bannon "for his outstanding dedication, leadership, and contributions to the Dover Recreation Department and the community at large.

"We extend our deepest gratitude for his unwavering commitment to enriching the lives of Dover residents through recreational opportunities and congratulate him on his remarkable career achievements," Carrier said.

Bannon was hired in 1989 as Assistant Parks and Recreation Director. He arrived as a stranger, finding the job posting through the New Hampshire Union Leader classified section from where the Rhode Island native lived in Jaffrey, working for a Christian camp as a facilities manager. 

"I didn't know anyone here," Bannon said recently. “But it didn’t take long to be connected with people in the city.” 

Bannon found a city already steeped in recreation opportunities, with two pools, an ice area, a gym, and many public parks, and knew it was a place he could settle into with his young family. During his tenure, he oversaw the addition of a second ice rink, the creation of two Dover Skate Parks, Dover Disc Golf Course, and Dover Adventure Playground, among many others. Bannon also oversaw the creation of the Recreation Facilities at McConnell Center in 2004-2005, repurposing Dover’s former middle school and high school into a center of recreation and a place for local non-profits agencies to help serve the community.

“We’re all on the same team,” Bannon said of the McConnell Center collaboration. “We all have the same mission: serving the public.”

Bannon was promoted to Recreation Superintendent of the newly formed Recreation Division of Community Services Department in 1994 and became Recreation Director in 2005 when the Recreation Department was reestablished.

“The 34 years went by like a blink,” Bannon said. “It wasn’t a job – it was a life.”

Bannon’s overarching vision is that “recreation is for everybody,” carrying on a longstanding city tradition. “The vision of what Dover Recreation is, started decades, decades before I first started,” he noted during his recent interview on the Dover Download podcast. 

While he helped shepherd numerous projects into reality, Bannon credits the collaboration of the city’s citizens for these project's success, such as the Dover Adventure Playground. With the help of the Cox family, David Bamford, and the New Hampshire Children’s Museum, a project that would have been built in phases over many years due to budgetary constraints was completed in a season. 

These projects are hallmarks of the city, Bannon said.

“Have a good idea, be patient, have faith that it can happen, and if it’s a good idea, you'll find the people and the ways to make it happen,” he said. “I've been fortunate in Recreation to see that over and over again.”

Bannon's motto is simple. “Make the world a better place because you are there.” 

Click here to listen to Bannon on the Dover Download podcast, and here to watch his keynote at the recent Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce "State of the City" event.