STAFF INDUCTEES

LUTHER D. WISHARD (1854-1925)

Wishard was the first YMCA student secretary. He formed campus associations in the USA – including one at the divinity school at Vanderbilt University, the first YMCA at a theological school – and saw the campus YMCA Movement grow explosively. By 1891, under his leadership, there were 345 student associations with more than 22,000 members. A devout Christian, Wishard conceived of his YMCA work as a kind of evangelism, spreading both Christianity and the principles of the YMCA.

As the American YMCA Movement spread to other countries, Wishard convinced some of those early YMCA missionaries to transplant the student YMCA concept to the lands in which they were working. In 1884, the first one outside North America was established at Jaffna College in Ceylon. By 1887, student YMCAs had been created in Japan, China, India, Syria and Turkey. He took a “world tour of missions” to promote the student movement (with financial assistance from John Wanamaker), during which he helped establish a university YMCA in Tokyo. He later served as the first Secretary of Foreign Work for the International Committee. And with all of that, Wishard still found the time, energy and backing in 1902 to create the YMCA center on Lake George at Silver Bay, NY, still a distinguished and active YMCA conference center, to this day.

SILVER BAY YMCA

Need and place came together in 1900, when Luther Wishard arrived at Lake George, scouting for a conference location where the Young Men’s Christian Association could conduct leadership training.

YMCA HALL OF FAME 2013 Inductees