Charles A. Flink Oral History 2016

Charles A. "Chuck" Flink is President of Greenways Incorporated, an international consulting firm based in North Carolina. He is one of America's leading greenway planners, having completed comprehensive greenway, trail and open space plans for more than 250 communities within 36 States. He has also been a consultant to clients in Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan and St. Croix, USVI. Flink is a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, and is the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Design at North Carolina State University.

Flink coauthored "Greenways. A Guide to Planning, Design and Development," which received a 1994 Merit Award in Communications from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and is cited by the American Planning Association as “the best single reference” on greenway development. Chuck also coauthored "Trails for the Twenty First Century." Both books have been translated into Chinese and are used as textbooks at Peking University in Beijing and Shenzhen.

Flink has been featured in prominent national and international publications including National Geographic, LA China, Landscape Architecture China, Business Journal, Private Clubs, Landscape Architecture, Walking, American Planning, Good Housekeeping, Southern Living and American City County. In 1995, he received an Environmental Excellence Award from the US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration for the Swift Creek Recycled Greenway, the nation's first greenway built from recycled trash. In 2001, he received a Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for his work on the Grand Canyon Greenway project.

He has lectured on the creation of greenways at more than 200 national and international conferences. He graduated Cum Laude in 1982 from North Carolina State University's College of Design and currently serves as Executive in Residence. He also currently serves on the NC State College of Design Leaders Council and Chairs the NC State University Board of Visitors (advisory to the Chancellor). He served three consecutive terms as Chairman of the Board for American Trails, Washington, DC. He served five terms as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, a 3,000 mile urban trail that extends from Calis, Maine to Key West, Florida along the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States. He currently serves on the American Trails National Advisory Board and is Chair of the East Coast Greenway National Advisory Board.

Notable projects include: Grand Canyon Greenway System, Susquehanna River Greenway, Miami River (FL) Greenway, Charleston County (SC) Greenbelt Plan, American Tobacco Trail, Grand Forks Greenway, North Delaware River Greenway (PA), Raleigh Greenprint, MetroGeen Action Plan, KS/MO, NW Arkansas Razorback Regional Greenway, River of Grass Greenway, Everglades, FL, Las Vegas Open Space and Trails Plan, Wolf River Greenway (Memphis, TN) and the North Carolina Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan.

This collection contains an oral history interview with Chuck Flink that was conducted by Gwynn Thayer in 2016. Flink discusses his time as an undergraduate studying landscape architecture at North Carolina State University, his childhood and professional influences, and the trajectory of his career in promoting greenway development nationally and internationally.

In the interview, Flink also discusses his personal philosophy about greenways and the social, economic and ecological roles they can play in communities. Projects discussed include the early Raleigh greenway system, the Grand Canyon Greenway, the Charleston County Greenbelt Plan, the Grand Forks Greenway, the Las Vegas Open Space and Trail Plan, the Northwest Arkansas Razorback Regional Greenway, and the Wolf River Greenway.

The interview also covers Flink's leadership in organizations like American Trails and the East Coast Greenway Alliance; his travels to Belarus, the Czech Republic, and China; and his thoughts on teaching and service.

Materials arranged in order received.

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[Identification of item], Charles A. Flink Oral History, MC 00606, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Greenways Incorporated Records and Charles A. Flink Papers 1970-2019, MC 00405

Gift of Charles A. Flink, 2016 (Accession 2016.0272).

Processed by: Gwynn Thayer and Lindsey Naylor, 2016 September; machine-readable finding aid by Gwynn Thayer and Lindsey Naylor, 2016 September; Digital materials processed by Jessica Rayman, 2017 January.