Maryville Parks and Recreation Assistant Director Maggie Rockwood was announced as the next director Feb. 9. She will be taking over for outgoing Director Jeff Stubblefield.
Stubblefield announced he would retire from MPR in October 2025 and officially retires March 17. Stubblefield spent over seven years as the director, but he has decided to retire to focus more on his family.
“Our daughter lost her husband, and it (retirement) was for personal reasons,” Stubblefield said.
Stubblefield said the week his son-in-law died, he was already planning on announcing his retirement. He said he believes the department is in a good place and new leadership will thrive.
“It was time for me to step aside and let somebody else take it to the next level,” Stubblefield said.
Rockwood said Stubblefield has taken her under his wing. For more than two years, Stubblefield has been training Rockwood to take on the director position. Stubblefield said he feels she is ready.
Stubblefield said he has had nothing but a positive time working with Rockwood. He said she is down-to-Earth and smart, as well as extremely organized.
Stubblefield said he has appreciated the chance to serve the community and being able to leave MPR in a better spot than when he left it. He said he’s sure whatever happens next will help the program continue its progress.
Rockwood started working with MPR in April 2019. She is a Maryville native who worked for MPR while in high school.
From the beginning, she said working at MPR felt comfortable.
“When I was getting out of college, it was something familiar to me, since I have worked in multiple different departments here,” Rockwood said.
Since joining MPR, she said she has grown to enjoy the people and community.
Throughout her career, as well as her full-time tenure at MPR, Rockwood said she has worked toward being the director. She has worked in nearly every department within MPR.
“I worked as the Aquatic Center supervisor, then most recently the Community Center supervisor and assistant director,” Rockwood said.
Rockwood said in the process of pursuing the director position, she wanted to progress through her career.
She said getting to stay in the city she loves, and working for MPR has been a great opportunity.
Rockwood said as far as plans go for MPR, there is a master plan — Maryville Momentum 2045 — that’s draft has been completed. The plan is to maintain, diversify and expand their properties.
She also said a few of the centers, such as the Maryville Community Center and Aquatic Center, are nearing the end of their lifespan and are beginning to decline. Continuing on, MPR will focus on maintaining its already existing facilities, expanding recreational programming, diversifying its parks and advancing Mozingo Lake Recreation Park’s status as a regional destination.
“It’s a little bit daunting with how much work we have to put in, but I’m excited to continue on the path of updating and getting done what we need to do, and continuing to move forward to looking at potentially a new Aquatic Center and how we can keep up with our building here at the community center,” Rockwood said.
This story comes from our partners at the Northwest Missourian, the campus newspaper of Northwest Missouri State University.