Sitting in his motorized wheelchair at Brighton Gardens of Raleigh, Jim Stevens lifts his right arm in greeting, but his left is curled against his chest. A stroke has left him unable to navigate and, much to his frustration, unable to speak clearly. But his eyes sparkle with intelligence. And on a recent Tuesday, they beamed with pride.

This is the man who helped rescue Jockey's Ridge, the immense Outer Banks sand dune, from the bulldozers. He kept Umstead Park from being sold to the city of Raleigh and helped line up the land for the Eno River, Fort Fisher and Pilot Mountain state parks. He tried to save Bald Head Island from its future of private development.

So on Nov. 16, Stevens was bestowed what I'm told was a first: a lifetime achievement award for his service to the state parks, first as a government employee, then, for a decade, as unpaid lobbyist for the nonprofit group Friends of State Parks.

Nov. 16 also happened to be Stevens' 82nd birthday.

With his wife and daughters, fellow residents and a handful of old colleagues gathered round, Stevens listened quietly as his friend John Graham recited a litany of his accomplishments.

From his service in the South Pacific during World War II to his years lobbying for free in his "retirement," it is quite a list.

In 1948, when Stevens moved to North Carolina to become assistant director of what was then the N.C. Recreation Commission, North Carolina had an eight-park system. But within a few years, the parks and recreation divisions were combined and Stevens became the director. The system exploded with growth. During Stevens' tenure, the number of parks more than tripled, including the addition of Kerr, Jordan and Falls Lake recreation areas, four natural areas and preserves.

"Essentially what he did was to obtain as much land as he possibly could for new parks," said Betsy Brooks, Stevens' daughter, who also lives in Raleigh. "He always said, 'If we can snatch the land now, we can develop the parks later.' "

He did pretty well. These days the parks boast more than 120,000 acres.

His daughter laughed when I asked which state park was her father's favorite. He loved Jockey's Ridge because of its history, she said.

"But it wasn't like Daddy was one of those parks guys who loved to camp," she said. As kids, she and her sister would pester him to take them camping in one of "his" parks. He refused.

He loved the parks. He loved to visit them. But when it came to camping, he'd say, "Why sleep in a tent when there's a Howard Johnson's nearby?"

A man after my own heart.

Brooks said her father proved his devotion to the park system from his desk, cajoling landowners and foundations, and in person at the legislature, charming lawmakers into providing enough money to support the parks.

"It was always his dream that every family in North Carolina would live less than a half-day's drive from one of the state parks," she said. "It was his dream they could all make a day trip to a state park."

Her father, the man with the sparkling eyes and sharp mind, helped make that dream a reality.

On Thanksgiving Day, that is something to be thankful for.

And Jim Stevens is, too.