STAFF INDUCTEES

ASA KENT JENNINGS (1877-1933)

Asa Jennings became Membership Secretary of the Utica, NY, YMCA in 1901 and later became General Secretary of the Carthage, NY association. He began his international work in 1918, serving first in France and then in Czechoslovakia as a Regional Secretary. In 1922, he went to Smyrna, Turkey as a Boys Work Secretary. It was in Turkey that Jennings performed the seemingly impossible, heroic act of saving nearly 350,000 refugees. When he arrived, Turkey was fighting a brutal war with Greece for possession of the territory around Smyrna in Asia Minor. As a result of the fighting, large portions of the city were burned to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. With no authority beyond his convictions, Asa Jennings was able to negotiate and secure safe passage from the Turkish armies for a fleet of Greek merchant vessels. Jennings’ courage captivated the imagination of the world; his story was produced twice in movies, in 1945 as “Strange Destiny” and then in 1952 as “A Man of great importance.”

WILLIAM CHAUNCEY LANGDON (1831-1895)

William Langdon in 1852 walked away from a promising career in patent law to assist in the organization of a YMCA in the District of Columbia. Beyond the achievement of founding a major urban YMCA, Langdon’s greatest work was as a driving force in the development of a national YMCA identity. As founder of the National Confederation of Young Men’s Christian Associations and its operating body called the Central Committee, Langdon played a decisive role in shaping the American YMCA Movement. Langdon was a champion of the ecumenical, nondenominational character of the YMCA. He was elected the first General Secretary in 1854. Langdon was also instrumental in founding the World Alliance of YMCAs. YMCA historian Howard Hopkins called Langdon “the most significant figure of the first decade” of the YMCA in the United States.