1999
Max Clowers

Max Clowers started his lifelong relationship as a member of the Hi-Y Club at the Springfield (IL) YMCA. In 1926, he became the Associate Boys’ Work Secretary of the Rock Island (IL) YMCA. During WWII, he served in the Navy YMCA in Norfolk, Virginia, which provided USO programs to a half mil- lion servicemen. In 1944, he joined the YMCA field staff at the North Central Area Council in Milwaukee, with responsibility for development of Youth and Government, Hi-Y and other youth programs. In 1968, he was appointed Executive Director of the North Central Area Council during a period of organizational transition. He successfully repositioned the Council into the mid-American region. He was editor and writer of the newsletter On Board, editor of the Boy’s Work Journal, and contributor to Perspective. Clowers retired in 1974, but stayed active in the YMCA and in his writing.

1999
John deBarbadillo

John deBarbadillo is a rare example of a YMCA professional who joined the YMCA as a member, and went on to spend his entire forty-five year career in the same Association. After graduating from York Collegiate Institute, deBarbadillo became the Assistant to the Boys’ Physical Director, eventually taking on responsibility for physical education, camping and youth leadership programs. He had particular success in aquatics programs, coaching years of undefeated teams, producing several national champions and one Olympic swimmer. He helped to develop the modern butterfly stroke and the station-to-station method of teaching the crawl stoke. He also developed the Tadpole Program, which served as the premier preschool swim pro- gram of the National YMCA. He wrote the rules and regulations for the Masters Swimming competition and acted as the meet director for the first National YMCA Masters Championship in York in 1981. deBarbadillo was enshrined in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1998.

1999
Yoritada Wada

Despite growing up in an era when Japanese Americans faced the challenges of intense discrimination, Wada grew to become a regional and national leader for humanitarian causes. He was an editor of the University of California at Berkeley newspaper in 1940, but was unable to secure employment as a journalist after college. He was drafted into the Army’s Military Intelligence Service in 1941. After he left the Army, he took his first job with the YMCA at the University of California’s Student YMCA in 1946. He went on to Program Director positions in the San Francisco YMCA, and became the Executive Director of the Buchanan Street Y after a short tenure with the California Youth Authority. While working in San Francisco, Wada established a bridge between Japanese American and African American youth. In retirement, Wada was appointed to the Board of Regents for the University of California, the first Asian regent in the Board’s 109 year history.

2000
BEV. R. LAWS

Like his parents before him, Bev Laws became a public school teacher after graduating from college, working part time as a football and basketball referee at the YMCA. After completing his graduate degree at New York University in 1953, he accepted the Physical Director position of the Montgomery (AL) YMCA. Soon after, he was appointed Executive Director of the new South Branch of the Montgomery Association. He became the General Secretary of the Orange County (FL) YMCA in Orlando in 1963, and completed a capital campaign that resulted in the construction of three new branches. After nine years in Orlando, Laws accepted the CEO position at the YMCA of Greater Houston. Under his leadership, Houston developed a resident camp, four new facilities and the ability to withstand the economic challenges of the 1980s. When Laws retired in 1992, Houston was the fourth largest YMCA in the country. He served on numerous national committees, was the Co-Chair for the Camping Centennial and Chaired the Urban Group and the National Employee Benefits Committees.

2000
Jesse Moorland

In 1892, Jesse Moorland was appointed the first General Secretary of the “Colored YMCA” in Washington, D.C., working hard to maintain financial support for the Association during the economic depression of 1893. Moorland served as a church pastor in Nashville and Cleveland for five years. From 1898 until 1923, he served on the YMCA’s national staff supporting YMCA work in African American communities. Moorland worked with industrialists John D. Rockefeller and Julius Rosenwald to support the work of the Y in black communities. He convinced Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck & Co to offer $25,000 to any community that could raise $75,000 for the construction of a black YMCA. Twenty five “Rosenwald Buildings” were constructed between 1910 and 1931. Moorland then faced the challenge of staffing these YMCAs, working with Student YMCAs as a source of qualified leadership.

2000
John O’Melia

John O’Melia was born into a family where his father, uncle and brother were all YMCA directors. He served in the Army during WWII, and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Western Reserve University before joining the Cleveland (OH) YMCA staff. As an Assistant Program Secretary, he developed an innovative interracial camp, community service programs for youth and a citywide coeducational camp. He also served as Executive Secretary in two Cleveland branches. In 1956, O’Melia joined the Ohio-West Virginia Area Council of YMCAs, where he had the responsibility of coordinating adult and industrial programs, interracial services and inner-city initiatives. In 1960, he founded the YMCA Center for International Management Studies, which offered management education activities to industrial leaders from the mid-west and their counterparts from foreign countries. As Director of National Program Services and later as Executive of Constituent Services on the national staff, O’Melia provided leadership for the full range of YMCA programs and organizational initiatives. From 1970 until his retirement in 1988, O’Melia worked with the International Division of the YMCA of the USA, first as the Executive Director of World Development and then as the Director of the International Division.