In 2002, the Southeastern Cave Conservancy began awarding the John Van Swearingen IV Stewardship Award. This award is in memory of John Van Swearingen who passed away in 2001. JV was an SCCi board member and active cave steward most of his adult life.

William Oldacre, of Gainesville, Florida, was chosen to be the first recipient of the award.

Mr. Oldacre began his stewardship of Warrens Cave in the early 1960s. Warrens Cave was often visited in the 1950s and 1960s by locals and fraternity/sorority parties which resulted in significant vandalism to the cave in the form of spray paint, carved initials and virtual elimination of the bat colony. Additionally, erosion of the sinkhole entrance to the cave and to the dirt road leading to the cave, as well as vegetative damage to the upland forest habitat surrounding the cave entrance occurred. His desire to protect the cave and ensure continued access to cavers led him to befriend the landowner, resulting in several noteworthy results.

First, Bill was able to impress upon the landowner the great value of the cave and the importance of conserving it. Thus, when the local sheriff felt that there had been too many injuries to flashlight cavers and decided to dynamite the entrance shut, the landowner confronted the sheriff jaw-to-jaw at the cave's entrance on the fateful day and vowed that if the cave's entrance was destroyed there would be a massive lawsuit against the sheriff and the county. The sheriff backed off. This was a remarkable feat.

Second, Bill worked out an agreement with the landowner for the Florida Speleological Society to continue to have access to the cave in return for the FSS maintaining a gate in the cave's entrance. Bill designed, built and installed the first cave gate in a Florida non-commercial cave, and over the next decade did the same for several replacement gates that were destroyed by vandals. There was even an instance in which Bill confronted vandals in the act of trying to tear down the gate in order to get into the cave. Bill's perseverance out-lasted that of the vandals; they have not destroyed a Warrens Cave gate in the last two decades.

Third, the landowner was so impressed with the great value of the Warrens Cave resource and with the successfulness of working with Bill and the FSS that he decided to donate the cave to a caving organization and asked Bill to spearhead that effort. Bill contacted the National Speleological Society but learned that it was not at that time in a position to accept the liability. Bill then contacted The Nature Conservancy, which was indeed interested in acquiring Warrens Cave and the surrounding 4 acres of upland forest habitat that accompanied it. Bill and his wife, Shirleen, prepared the TNC application, with engineering, geological and ecological appendices from local cavers.

When TNC changed its focus to imperiled species, its management realized that Warrens Cave would be more properly owned and administered by a national caving organization. By that time the NSS had reversed its policy and already acquired several caves, so Bill prepared the application that resulted in the NSS acquiring Warrens Cave.