ECU picks teacher for outstanding alumni honor

(May 21, 2001)   —   James Edwin Rich of Greensboro has received the Outstanding Alumni Award for 2001 from the East Carolina University School of Health and Human Performance.

Rich earned a master’s degree in education from ECU in 1984 and specialized in adapted physical education. Today, he conducts workshops, seminars and institutes throughout the country on ways to include children with disabilities in physical education programs. He has conducted more than 750 workshops. A message carried in his programs is “Do it for the kids.” Adapted physical education leaders nationwide attend Rich’s “A Total Commitment” conference, held annually in Greensboro. 

Rich has served as a physical education teacher, coach and administrator. He has been the adapted physical education consultant to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Division of Exceptional Children and a visiting instructor at Greensboro College and N.C. A&T State University.