Arcadia's Van Kirk Receives Humanitarian Award

Back in the late 1950s, Dick Van Kirk and Rafer Johnson became teammates as members of the Southern California Striders, a club that boasted a roster of some of the greatest track and field athletes of that era.

Johnson went on to Olympic fame and flame, winning the 1960 Olympic decathlon gold medal in Rome and gaining enough stature over the years to be chosen to light the Olympic flame to kick off the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

Van Kirk, an Arcadia resident for the past 42 years, didn’t have quite the athletic success Johnson did, but did pretty well. A long jumper who still holds at the school record at Caltech, Van Kirk won a Southern Pacific AAU long jump title and won that event at the 1961 Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut with a personal-best of 25 feet 4 inches.

That helped give Van Kirk world-class status as a jumper, but at the time it would have taken huge leap of imagination for him to think that way off in the future he would be getting a special award bearing Johnson’s name.

That day came Saturday, June 11, in Long Beach when Johnson himself presented Van Kirk, his longtime friend, with the Rafer Johnson Humanitarian Award. Van Kirk won the award, not for any athletic achievements, but rather for his work with Special Olympics.

Johnson, in 1969, was one of the founders of Special Olympics in this area and has been very active in the world-wide organization that encourages athletes with intellectual disabilities “to be the best that they can be.”

Van Kirk has been involved for more than 30 years and from 1995-1999 served as CEO and president of Special Olympics Southern California. He is now President Emeritus and an active member of the board of directors. 

Van Kirk, also a member of the board of directors, has a BS in mechanical engineering from Caltech and a Masters degree in business economics from Claremont Graduate University.

Upon graduation from Caltech, he received the Frederic W. Hinrichs award as the most outstanding member of the senior class. He was an all-conference quarterback on the Caltech football team and also played on the varsity basketball team in addition to being a track star. 

Van Kirk spent 28 years with the accounting firm of Ernst & Young prior to joining Special Olympics.  

The award presentation Saturday kicked off the Southern California Summer Games at Long Beach State.

It wasn’t the first time Johnson has presented Van Kirk with an award, and Johnson took the opportunity to poke a little fun at his friend.   

“I’ve presented Dick with awards three times before this,” he said. “The first time he dropped the award. The second time he set it next to the microphone and it slid off the podium. The third time, the award fell apart when I handed it to him.”  

This time, Johnson wanted to make sure nothing like that happened again and called Van Kirk’s wife Janet to the podium so he could hand her the large, framed award. 

Janet was among a large Van Kirk contingent on hand. It included the three Van Kirk children, Rick, Karen and Doug, their spouses and the six Van Kirk grandchildren.    

Van Kirk delivered a brief but moving acceptance speech, concluding by pointing out there are “no limits to what the human spirit can achieve."

Van Kirk himself is an example of that.