Long-time golf super selected as Parks Director

Long-time Four Oaks Golf Course Superintendent Kristopher Loy was selected as Pittsburg Parks and Recreation Director.

“Kris has been a great superintendent at Four Oaks, and I know he will fill the role as Parks Director very well,” City Manager Daron Hall said. “We’re looking forward to continuing to see our parks and recreation programs grow and flourish.”

Loy is looking forward to his new role, he said, and with the passing of his friend and colleague, Toby Book, the previous parks director, this opportunity is even more important to him.

“It’s very unfortunate and very sad how the opening came about,” he said. “But I’m going to do my best to make him proud.”

About Loy

Loy has always been involved in athletics, with a childhood of playing golf at Four Oaks and playing baseball at Pittsburg ball fields.

“Growing up here, I loved the city — everything about it,” Loy said. “I grew up in the parks, spent every day at the pool. Those ball fields were home. And now, being able to give back, it feels like I’ve just taken everything I grew up with, and now I’m doing it on a bigger scale and trying to help the next ones coming up.”

Following college at Pittsburg State University, he found a job opportunity at the Crestwood Country Club golf course. Nearly a decade later, an opportunity popped up at the city to help manage Four Oaks.

On Feb. 13, Loy will have spent two decades at Fours Oaks. He started as an assistant golf course superintendent and later became the golf course superintendent.

“I had some great mentors,” Loy said. “I found a job that I’d love every single day, that’s why I stayed around.”

In his superintendent role, he used to see every sunrise, something he’ll miss. Just as special are the relationships he has built with golfers and staff, including the students who go to school, graduate, and then come back to the golf course with their families.

“For me, it’s the bond,” Loy said. “I’m one of the last people they stop by to see before they take off after graduation. Then, five, ten years go by, and they come back with their families. I really do appreciate it. And I know I’d get that same kind of thing in this new position too.”