Kansas City Parks and Recreation Director Terry Rynard announced her plan to retire in a letter included in the June 10 KC Parks newsletter.

“It is with mixed emotions I announce I will be retiring as KC Parks Director effective July 5, 2021,” Rynard wrote. “The City of Kansas City, Missouri is offering a retirement package and after decades of working at KC Parks, I felt it was time for me to retire.  I grew up my entire life enjoying everything about KC Parks, walking through Buckeye Greenway every day to get to school, being outdoors and simply enjoying all the open spaces.”

“I started my career with KC Parks as a teen as a weed whacker and just kept working each summer,” Rynard continued. “Once I graduated from college, I came on full time.  As I worked my way up through the ranks, I never dreamed I would be Director and then suddenly, it happened.”

Rynard has served as director of the department for nearly three years, and said she is excited for the direction KC Parks is headed.

“We are working toward a more equitable system, creating the QLID (Quality of Life Investment District) and investing more than ever before in an area of Kansas City that has been neglected for decades,” Rynard wrote. “We still have a lot of work to do, but I have full confidence in the KC Parks team to continue this progress and keep our 221 parks, 48 fountains and miles of boulevards and parkways as beautiful as ever.”

Then-Deputy Director Rynard succeeded Mark McHenry’s 44-year career as director of the department when he retired in 2018.

Now three years later, she is not the only department director to retire from the City this summer, as Health Department Director Rex Archer announced his retirement planned for August.

Rynard recently oversaw the transition of the Kansas City Museum management to the Kansas City Museum Foundation, the installation of a mini-pitch in Budd Park, and the installation of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard signs after a years long debate. She had a hand in numerous other Parks projects throughout Northeast in her time with the department.