E. Lawrence Packard
Biographical Sketch
Edward A. Lawrence Packard has sixty years of practical experience in landscape architecture, site planning and golf course architecture which has resulted in broad working knowledge of the economical planning of land areas for human use.
Following graduation in 1935 from the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts, Mr. Packard was employed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Resettlement Administration on Recreation Development Projects. He moved into the National Park Service in 1936 on land selection for new park developments on Mt. Desert Island, Bar Harbor, Maine.
For two years Mr. Packard gained valuable experince as designer, engineer and supervisor for a landscape contractor in the Boston metropolitan area. Following this he worked for a year in the same capacity for the E.A. McIlhennny Landscape Co., makers of Tobasco sauce, with office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Houston, Texas.
In 1939 Mr. Packard went with the U.S. War Department, Corps of Engineers and was stationed at Westover Field in western Massachusetts. For four years he had complete charge of all phases of the landscape work for this $15,000,000 project. During this time Mr. Packard developed a complete Master Plan and camouflage plan for the entire air base installation. A major part of work was seeding 1,500 acres of grass.
In 1943, after the war, Mr. Packard came to the Chicago Park District as designer and engineer for a multi-million dollar park expansion program. Here, Mr. Packard worked on site selection and development for new parks and also on the design aspects of Northerly Island Airstrip and O'Hare International Airport.
After 1944, Mr. Packard worked for eight years as chief supervisor and designer for Chicago golf course architect Robert Bruce Harris. Here Mr. Packard handled several jobs in various capacities running over the quarter million dollar mark, including the site planning for Maine Township High School in Des Plaines and Park Ridge, Illinois, the Maryknoll College site development in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, the Janesville, Wisconsin High School site planning and the University of Iowa golf course, plus numerous golf courses.
During the fifty years from the 1950s through the 1990s, Mr. Packard became:
President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects
President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects Foundation
Chapter President of the American Society of Landscape Architects
President of the Rotary Club of LaGrange, Illinois
President of Plymouth Place, a LaGrange, Illinois retirement home
Landscape Architect for Plus, Inc., a LaGrange beautification project for Burlington Railroad
In fifty years, Packard has handled more than 250 golf projects ranging from the redesign of a few holes to the design of four courses for Innisbrook Golf Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida. Two of Innisbrook's courses have been in Golf Digest's 100 best in the country, as well as the best in Florida, since 1975.
Other notable courses in Michigan that Mr. Packard has designed are Bay City Country Club in 1965, Hampshire Country Club in Dowagiac, in 1961, Pine Grove Country Club at Iron Mountian, Spring Meadows Country Club in Linden, in 1965 and most notable Leslie Park Golf Course in 1967 which won the Best Municipal Golf Course in the State of Michigan by Golf Digest.
The firm adheres to long-established design principles and safety considerations in developing a course, either with or without housing. Only a few water hazards are used. Good plans and specifications are a must. Feature articles on Packard courses have appeared in Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, PGA Magazine, Golfweek, Desert Golf, Wisconsin PGA, Chicago Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times. The firm's Chicago office has been managed by Packard's son, Roger, since 1986. Packard courses are designed so that both men and women will have very pleasant golfing. Easy pars but difficult birdies!