On Sept. 1, Howard Mast got the award of a lifetime.

At the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond, Mast, who has served Suffolk’s athletic community for about half a century and has one of the area’s most well-known tennis complex carrying his name on Main Street, got the Dick Green lifetime achievement award from the United States Tennis Association of Virginia (USTAVA).

&uot;I figured I would get it,&uot; Mast said at the USTAVA banquet Saturday evening at the Nansemond River Golf Club. &uot;About a week before the event, Jan (Grover, who herself would be named the USTAVA’s Volunteer of the Year for 2005) called me and told me that they needed some information. Three or four days before, they told me I’d won it.&uot;

Aside from being the driving force behind generations of Suffolk tennis, Mast also helped begin the Peninsula Tennis Patrons association and the Harrisonburg Tennis association.

&uot;I’m getting to the end of my career and my living,&uot; he said. &uot;I don’t feel bad about it. I know the end’s got to come. I always look down the road five years, and I’m still doing that right now.&uot;

Mast, the former head of the Suffolk Parks and Recreation Department, said he’d like to see Suffolk build a tennis clubhouse, two indoor courts and a rebound board.

jason.norman@suffolknewsherald.com