Born into a family that traces its roots in Jerusalem back 500 years, 12-year-old Rizek Abusharr was recruited to do yard work at the Jerusalem International YMCA (JIY), along with Palestinian classmates and an equal number of Jewish boys. Abusharr never left; he spent his entire career working at the JIY, becoming the first indigenous director general in 1998.

The hallmark of Abusharr’s work was his commitment to build tolerance among the different faiths in Jerusalem. He ensured that equal numbers of Jewish, Arab, and Christian participants were represented in programs, membership, and on volunteer boards. Under his leadership, the JIY was recognized as a haven of peaceful co-existence in a region where conflict and distrust are commonplace. His work earned the JIY a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was recognized with the Marthe Laube Prize for Tolerance and Democratic Values and an honorary doctor of Humanics degree from Springfield College.

Earl Armstrong began his 52-year affiliation with the YMCA in 1940 as the Boys’ Work secretary in Louisville (Ky.). He established and ran Camp Piomingo for seven years and later became the association-wide program–and then associate– general secretary. In 1953, he moved to the Central Atlantic staff as associate secretary and camp director, eventually assuming regional portfolios for personnel and camping.

In 1960, Armstrong was awarded the first John R. Mott Fellowship, allowing him to pursue a year of full-time graduate studies at Columbia University. He served as the associate secretary for the Personnel Services Division of the National Council of YMCAs, and then moved to Charlotte as the executive director of the Interstate YMCA of the Carolinas.

He remained in a consulting role in the southeast until his retirement in 1982. Upon his retirement, the Armstrong Scholarship was established to enable YMCA senior directors to pursue graduate study. In retirement, Armstrong served as a volunteer personnel specialist for the YMCAs. He was the architect of the YMCA Salary Administration Plan, and was responsible for the implementation of the salary program through most of the YMCAs in the United States.

Eugene Barnett served as a secretary for the University of North Carolina Student YMCA while attending graduate school from 1908-10. For the next 27 years, he worked in various YMCA positions in China, where the YMCA flourished until the Communist Revolution.

Barnett served as general secretary in Shanghai, and in 1925, became the senior secretary for the International Committee of the YMCA in China. He served concurrently as associate general secretary of the China National Committee and was also a member of the National Christian Council. Barnett returned to the United States in 1937 to become the executive secretary of the International Board of the YMCA. He helped to eliminate the significant debt that had developed and managed the World Services program.

In 1941, he was named the general secretary of the National Council of YMCAs where he served until his retirement in 1953. During WWII, Barnett gave leadership to the YMCA’s efforts on the home and fighting fronts. The national organization provided aid to soldiers, prisoners of war, and local YMCAs.

Anthony Bowen (1805-1872), was a former slave who organized the first African-American YMCA in 1853. That was the Twelfth Street YMCA in Washington, D.C., later named YMCA Anthony Bowen and designated a National Historic Landmark. Inspired by his friend William Chauncey Langdon, founder of the YMCA of the City of Washington, Bowen was committed to the advancement of African-Americans in social, educational, and religious respects. Bowen’s YMCA grew out of his efforts to organize the African-American community of Washington D.C. In 1839, he sponsored “The Colored Peoples Meeting House,” a meeting space for the free African-Americans of the city. In 1847 he opened a Sunday evening school for free men where they studied reading, writing, and the bible. For nearly the first 40 years after its founding in 1853, the “Colored” YMCA existed independent of the white YMCA in Washington, and their activities were restricted to meetings in rented space, donated rooms, and members’ living rooms. With determination and dedication, YMCA Anthony Bowen was reorganized as a branch of the YMCA of the City of Washington in 1905. Bowen, the first African-American employee of the U.S. Patent Office, was also instrumental in founding St. Paul AME Church.

Earl Brandenburg began his lifetime affiliation with the YMCA as a teen member of the La Crosse (Wis.) YMCA. As a 20-year-old, he was employed as the Boys’ Work secretary in Wausau, Wisconsin. He was involved in YMCA War Work in San Antonio (Texas) and Michigan before enlisting in the Navy.

After the war, he served as the town and country secretary for the Wisconsin State Committee, and later, as the Chicago-based regional Boys’ Work secretary on the national staff. In 1927, Brandenburg was named regional executive in Chicago and organized the system of area councils to coordinate the work of National Council and state committees. Six years later, as the associate general secretary of the National Council, he supported the continued development of area organizations throughout the U.S. and implemented a new percentage financing formula.

From 1936 to 1940, Brandenburg served as general secretary of the St. Louis County (Mo.) YMCA. He was appointed director of the YMCA Retirement Fund in 1940, and was responsible for revamping the operations and increasing the investments of the Fund, which had suffered in the Great Depression. Under his leadership, the Fund gained stability and its assets grew from $18 million to $103 million. Brandenburg was a trustee of both Springfield College and George Williams College.

Halbe Brown began his career at the Youngstown (Ohio) YMCA, first as aquatic director and later as the camp director and youth director. In 1966, he became the executive director of the Frost Valley (N.Y.) YMCA, a position he held until his retirement 35 years later.

Under Brown’s leadership, Frost Valley grew from a 2,000-acre camp with an annual budget of $115,000, to a 6,000-acre, $6 million, year-round facility. The year-round staff of six served 1,400 children in 1966. In 2001, the 100-member staff served over 31,000 guests.

Brown was dedicated to providing high quality camping experiences for people of all abilities, and created the first pediatric dialysis center in a resident camp setting. Project MAC was created to enable developmentally disabled children to attend camp. He was committed to fostering cross-cultural cooperation and developed a multi-faceted partnership with the YMCA in Tokyo.

Throughout his work with the Y, Michael Bussey showed that rather than pursuing a career, he pursued a calling. Bussey’s work goes beyond the Y and into the global pursuit of peace. The beginning of Bussey’s journey with the YMCA begins at Camp Christmas Tree, a day camp operated by the Minneapolis YMCA. As a 15-year-old camp counselor, Bussey dove into the deep end of what the Y had to offer, working to become a full-time program director after completing his college education. Bussey continued to serve the YMCAs of his home state, up until 1990, when he took to the global stage. Bussey served as the director general for the Jerusalem International YMCA from 1990-98, as well from 2008-09. During his tenure, the YMCA was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its work to build peaceful coexistence in an area divided by ethnic and religious conflict. Bussey’s work goes into his retirement, as he continues to volunteer with passion and care on both the national and international level.

John Casey has had a profound impact on the YMCA movement, both as the president of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago and then as the secretary general of the World Alliance of YMCAs where he was able to act on his unique global passion and vision for the YMCA movement. His commitment to addressing social issues in one’s community started with his work as the vice president of program development and government relations for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. In this role he had primary responsibility for developing and coordinating $15 million annually in state and municipal contracts to support much needed social programs including childcare for low-income families, higher education, juvenile delinquency, adult and youth employment, community health initiatives, drug and alcohol counseling, and various housing programs. He also advised the State of Illinois General Assembly on making improvements and addressing the enforcement of collections for delinquent child support, child abuse prevention, reforms to the state’s Medicare system, and many other initiatives to support children and families.

After bringing the Chicago Y from financial peril, Casey went on to serve the World Alliance of YMCAs in Geneva, Switzerland, as secretary general. This was a significant honor in the history of the YMCA movement as he was the first Roman-Catholic and first local YMCA executive to ever hold the post, as well as being the first American in that post in 35 years. In this role he expanded the YMCA’s refugee and disaster relief efforts, integrated women into worldwide leadership roles in the YMCA, led the campaign to ban landmines, and created pathways for conflict resolution and community transformation through YMCA led efforts around the world. His greatest legacy is the focus on youth work in the worldwide YMCA movement, which still echoes around the globe with the International Youth Internship Program and the Global Youth Leadership Program. Casey was a mentor to literally hundreds of youth leaders around the world through the Young Professionals Forum with his passion of meeting and motivating youth to build a new generation of global YMCA leaders. As his term of office ended in 1998, under his initiative, the Mission Review Process was passed at the 14th World Council in Frechen, Germany, which gave the world movement a newly formulated mission statement called Challenge 21. The mission states, “Affirming the Paris Basis adopted in 1855 as the ongoing foundation statement of the mission of the YMCA, at the threshold of the third millennium we declare that the YMCA is a world-wide Christian, ecumenical, voluntary movement for women and men with special emphasis on and the genuine involvement of young people and that it seeks to share the Christian ideal of building a human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation.”

Winifred Colton had a stellar YMCA career promoting programs for girls, women, and families. Beginning in 1940, she spent three years in Chicago YMCA branches as secretary for programs with women and girls.

In 1953, she joined the Dallas (Texas) YMCA as the program secretary for women and girls. Colton retired after serving seven years as the director of the Family Communication Skills Center in California. In retirement, she continued to influence the work that the YMCA did with women and girls.

Her focus remained on communication, human development, and cross-cultural and international understanding. She spent 39 years developing the foundation of today’s family-oriented YMCA.

Carolyn Creager is a champion of multicultural leadership development, as she served as a founding member of multiple programs aimed at addressing inequities and lack of racial representation in YMCA staffing. With a wealth of knowledge and ideas, Creager became the first director of what is now known as Multicultural Leadership Development (MLD) in 2004. Over the next 10 years, Creager helped launch multiple national leadership development programs, including the Multicultural Executive Development Institute, the Multicultural Executive Career Advancement, the Multicultural Mentoring Program, the Emerging Multicultural Leadership Experience, and the Next Level CEO Coaching program. MLD is the longest-running strategy dedicated to addressing racial gaps and inequities throughout the Y today. Creager’s hard work and vision inspired a movement within the YMCA organization that has helped develop multicultural leaders into high levels of leadership, both internally and externally. 

Laurence Doggett’s first involvement with the YMCA was with the Student YMCA at Oberlin College in Ohio. He served one year with the State YMCA of Ohio, before leaving to pursue a doctorial degree at the University of Leipzig (Germany). His thesis at Leipzig was the history of the YMCA, subsequently published as “The History of the Young Men’s Christian Association.” Doggett was appointed Secretary of the State YMCA of Ohio upon his return to the United States.

In 1896, he became president of the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College), where he served for 40 years. Under Doggett’s leadership, the School became known for its liberal religious teachings and for training leaders both inside and outside the YMCA. During his time as president, the College’s “Humanics” philosophy, which calls for the education of the whole person — in spirit, mind, and body — for leadership in service to humanity, was implemented. The philosophy still guides the College today. Doggett also ran four capital campaigns to establish and build the present-day campus and to create an endowment.

In addition to his work at Springfield College, Doggett also served as “principal” of the YMCA Summer Institutes at the Silver Bay (N.Y.) association, attracting up to 600 Y secretaries for summer training.

Jean Ann Durades made her mark in the YMCA as a champion for multicultural leadership development, in particular in her work providing training and networking opportunities for young black staff (program and executive) to aspire to leadership positions in the Y Movement. She also coached and counseled black staff to envision themselves beyond their current programs and home branches to include higher-level positions that could be leveraged to assist other up-and-coming staff. Her work expanded internationally, especially in Africa, where she traveled on behalf of the Y on several occasions. Durades began her career with the YMCA in 1963 as a program counselor for the YMCA of Metro Chicago. After holding other counselor positions, in 1970 she became the first African American female management consultant on the staff of the National Council of YMCAs in Region 1. She held that position for 22 years until her retirement in 1992.

A contemporary and colleague of John R. Mott, G. Sherwood Eddy was one of the best-known evangelists and religious writers of his day. In 1896, he went to India at his own expense and worked at the YMCA-organized Indian Student Volunteer Movement, serving as its secretary for the next 15 years. In 1911, he was appointed secretary for Asia by the International Committee and he divided his time between evangelistic campaigns in Asia and fundraising in North America. Huge crowds would flock to his meetings in China, where he and Mott fostered YMCA programs that engaged many thousands of men and boys. Eddy served in World War I, and during World War II, wrote in support of armed resistance to the Nazi threat, though he later became a pacifist. He was the author of 37 books, mostly on religious themes. In 35 years of work for the YMCA International Committee, Eddy never once received a salary.

Harold Friermood is known as the “grandfather of volleyball” and is recognized as the person who brought volleyball to the Olympics. He earned his undergraduate degree from George Williams College and his doctorate from New York University.

During the late 1930s, Friermood served as associate physical director for the Chicago and Dayton (Ohio) YMCAs. From 1943 to 1968, he was the director of health, physical education, recreation, and sports, on the national staff. He was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1944 to 1985, and provided leadership to numerous national and international volleyball associations.

Friermood was elected as a lifetime member of the National YMCA Physical Education Society in 1967. He was also the first recipient of the U. S. Volleyball Association’s Frier Award, which was named for him. Dr. Friermood received the Association of YMCA Professionals (AYP) Roberts-Gulick award in 1944 and was also honored by the President’s Council of Physical Education.

Hugo Grassi had a career that earned him the distinction of being called “the John R. Mott of South America.” A 1925 graduate of Springfield College, Grassi was the first physical director of the Montevideo YMCA in Uruguay and eventually became the general secretary there. In 1940, he was elected South American general secretary of the South American Federation of YMCAs. Under his leadership the federation established new associations and constructed new YMCA buildings. By 1950, there were 14 YMCA associations in South America that served 300,000 people. In 1956, he joined the World Alliance staff in Geneva.

Born in Kansas in 1886, L.K. Hall’s first involvement with the YMCA was during his college years at Baker University. After teaching school for two years, he began working for the YMCA, helping to establish the Camp Wood YMCA (Kansas) in 1915.

He was hired by the International Committee of the YMCA to develop programs for rural youth and also spent seven years in China developing Boys’ Work programs in Shanghai and for the China National Council of YMCAs. Hall returned to the U.S. to attend Columbia University in 1925. In 1928, he joined the faculty at what had then become known as the International YMCA College (now Springfield College), where he stayed for 15 years as the director of Boys’ Work Studies and later, the director of the Social Science Department.

Hall left Springfield College to become the interim editor of Association Press, the publishing enterprise of the National Council of YMCAs. He remained in this position for nine years until his retirement in 1952. In retirement, he served as the first director of the Association of Secretaries (today’s Association of YMCA Professionals) until 1957, and was also a visiting professor at George Williams College.

A graduate of George Williams College, Donald Hayward began his career as the Boys’ Work secretary and physical director at the Dallas (Texas) YMCA. He was appointed community secretary of the Fort Worth (Texas) YMCA in 1939. Three years later, he moved to the Los Angeles (Calif.) YMCA as the executive secretary of the South West Branch.

He became the program director of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles in 1952, where he initiated an international partnership with the YMCA in Nagoya, Japan. Hayward was instrumental in the expansion of a number of YMCA programs, including the concept of comprehensive youth involvement programs such as Indian Guides,Gra-Y, Junior Hi-Y, and Hi-Y.

He remained in the Metropolitan Los Angeles YMCA for 23 years until his retirement in 1975. In retirement, he continued to devote his time and energy to the YMCA Family Communication Skills Center.

Born at a YMCA community for Japanese immigrants, Fred Hoshiyama lived his entire life in association with the YMCA. He served as the Boys’ Work secretary at the San Francisco (Calif.) Japanese YMCA Branch. In 1942, he was interred at the Government Internment Camp in Utah, where he helped to create YMCA-based programs to help address the social, educational, and recreational needs of the Japanese-Americans held in the camp.

An offer to study at Springfield College provided Hoshiyama with an early release from the camp. In 1946, he served as the community youth program director in Honolulu (Hawaii), before returning to San Francisco in branch executive roles. In 1971, he was appointed associate staff of the national program and Urban Development Division.

He developed National Youth Program Using Mini-Bikes (NYPUM), a program that eventually engaged 250,000 high-risk youth in productive activities. From 1976 to 1983, he assisted in the formation of the National Association of Student YMCAs. In retirement, Hoshiyama continued to serve in numerous training and consulting roles, maintaining an active presence in Y-USA’s Principles and Practices training.

After graduating from George Williams College in 1940, Charles Jacobson began work as the youth program director of the Southwest Branch of the Los Angeles (Calif.) YMCA. A year later, he was named the executive director of the new Downey Branch.

After the Los Angeles Y separated from the Community Chest, Jacobson was charged with implementing a comprehensive annual fundraising drive, an experience that would shape much of the rest of his career. Many of the development strategies and materials he produced became resources for Ys across the U.S. and Canada. In 1963, he was appointed the chief development officer and six years later, became the president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Greater Los Angeles.

He designed the “Y-Buildings for Youth” program which established or rehabilitated 20 branches and camps, and provided an additional one million dollars for current operations. Jacobson retired the association’s $3.5 million debt with the “Getting Ready for Tomorrow Campaign.”

Julius Jones started his career in 1963 as a youth program director at the Jacksonville (Fla.) YMCA. Four years later, he was appointed branch executive director in the Nashville (Tenn.) association. In 1972, he moved to the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. as director of operations.

In 1979, he began 22 years of service as president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Pittsburgh (Pa.). In that role, he was responsible for the operation of 17 local branches and outreach centers and three camps, with an annual budget of over $22,000,000. With a passion for staff development, Jones was a mentor and teacher for generations of up-and-coming YMCA directors. As a result of his international work, many long-term partnerships were created between U.S. and African YMCAs.

He served on numerous boards and committees, both within and outside the YMCA, including the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Private Industry Council, and Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers. In retirement, Jones continued to provide leadership with YMCA of the USA, the North American Fellowship of YMCA Retirees (NAFYR), and the YMCA Retirement Fund, including relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Born in 1919, John Kessler earned degrees from Southeast Missouri State and George Williams College. He joined the YMCA Movement in 1946, serving as director of the Kansas City (Mo.) YMCA’s Lighton Club. He subsequently served at YMCAs in Boston and Fitchburg (Mass.) and on the New England region staff, before moving to the Oak Park (Ill.) YMCA.

While serving as president of the Minneapolis (Minn.) YMCA, Kessler assembled a Board of Directors consisting of community members who were capable of attracting major gifts, an innovation in development strategy. By the time he left in 1983, after 16 years in leadership, the Y had raised a total of $42 million and constructed six new buildings. In 1984, he accepted the difficult task of providing leadership to George Williams College at a time when its closure was imminent. He oversaw the college’s transition to become part of Aurora University.

He served four terms as chairman of the Urban Group and was involved in several national and international committees. Kessler received an honorary doctorate from Springfield College in 1985.

Gary Kuenzilli joined the YMCA when he was nine-years-old, and spent all 33 years of his professional career in the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles (Calif.). He was hired in 1960 as a program director in the San Fernando Valley, and eight years later was the founding executive director of the Torrence-South Bay Branch.

He joined the corporate staff of the Los Angeles YMCA as vice president for branch financial development, and served as the first director of the Southern California Management Resource Center from 1976 until his retirement in 1994. Throughout this career, he was able to combine his skills as a trainer, writer, and organizer.

An advocate of applying modern management theory, Kuenzli wrote articles, monographs, manuals, catalogues, and training designs that were used in YMCAs all over the world. He served one term as national chair of the YMCA Association of Professional Directors (APD) and chaired two APD national conferences. In retirement, he continued to write on YMCA issues and continued traveling as a volunteer trainer for YMCAs across the country.

After serving in the Army during WWI, Herbert Lansdale earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oberlin College and completed additional graduate studies at Clark University, while serving as educational director of the Worcester (Mass.) YMCA.

He accepted an assignment as the general secretary of the YMCA in Saloniki, Greece in 1925, and two years later was selected as the national secretary of the YMCAs of Greece, a post he held until 1939. For two years, Lansdale served as the U.S. State Department director of the Division of Relief and Welfare of the American Mission for Aid to Greece.

He returned to the United States as the general secretary of the Rochester (N.Y.) YMCA, where he remained until 1952. Lansdale was appointed executive secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA of the United States and Canada, and served from 1957 to 1964 as general secretary of the National Council.

A veteran of the Civil War and an evangelist, William E. Lewis was one of the early state secretaries at a time when the YMCA movement was responding to the need to coordinate and support the work of local associations. He was working with the Massachusetts YMCA when he was recruited to become state secretary for Wisconsin. At that time, there was a movement under way to provide a standardized training program for YMCA secretaries to foster professionalism in the field. Lewis convened an organizational meeting to discuss the creation of a summer school for YMCA secretaries. The meeting was at Camp Collie, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Wis., in August 1884. The outcome was the establishment of the Western Secretarial Institute, which Lewis founded with I.E. Brown and Robert Weidensall. That institute became the Lake Geneva campus of George Williams College. Lewis was named the institute’s first president.

Armin F. Luehrs (Whitey) had a 41 year career with the YMCA as one of the most highly recognized camping specialists from 1948 to 1990. He was considered legendary by his peers during the camping movement of his time. Luehrs was drawn to the YMCA as a Hi-Y high school student when a new YMCA opened up in his hometown of Sheboygan, Wis. He then spent five years as a summer staff person at the Wisconsin State YMCA Camp Manito-wish.

His local work continued with the St. Paul YMCA as director of the wilderness canoe camp, Widjiwagan, and the new resident family Camp du Nord, the latter of which he helped establish. It was there he met the camp nurse who eventually became his wife and mother to their three children.

With the Minneapolis YMCA, Luehrs supervised the four resident youth camps and three large metropolitan day camps, along with the development of a new 1400 acre site for camping and recreational use.

Throughout his career, Luehrs had been actively involved with the American Camp Association (ACA) in a variety of projects and events, culminating a term as national president. He was also a recipient of ACA’s Distinguished Service Award, recognizing his volunteer service.

Luehrs was then invited to serve on the national staff, first, as a regional program and camping specialist for the Southwest and Pacific Regions (office, Dallas) and later with the Program Division (Chicago) continuing with the camping portfolio nationally.

Some additional highlights during this era included: the development of Day Camp standards; the first and second National Conferences for Outdoor Education (school related programs); the centennial of YMCA camping in 1985 brought more than 500 people to the Y of the Rockies; the U.S. Postal System issuing a YMCA Camping Stamp (22 cents), the first of its kind; inauguration of World Camps in each of the regions; and camper exchange programs with European countries.

For eight years in retirement, Luehrs served as chairman to the International Camp Counselor Program for the New York YMCA.

As a YMCA Professional, Robert devoted more than 50 years of his career as a leader in YMCA organizations in Hawaii, the USA and around the world. Robert’s YMCA experience included complex international work in four continents, the Pacific, Middle East and across the U.S.

He provided leadership with “YMCAs in areas of crises” by traveling several times each year to Belfast, Northern Ireland and The Republic working at the invitation of and in partnership with the Belfast YMCA and the Irish YMCA. He also worked actively in support of the YMCA of the USA’s Jerusalem International YMCA, East Jerusalem YMCA, Gaza YMCA, Nazareth YMCA and others in organizing and participating in meetings with the leadership of other regional factions. Robert also initiated and led activities to strengthen partnerships with the Africa Alliance of YMCAs.

Throughout his career, Robert also played a significant role in the YMCA’s relationship, between the YMCA of the USA and YMCAs in Asia & the Pacific as well as the Canadian and Mexican YMCAs, and the Soviet Union. He served as the key representative for the YMCA of the USA for several decades with the National General Secretaries of both China and Japan.

Quentin R. Mease started his YMCA career, which spanned from 1939 to 1976, as an executive for the Crocker Street YMCA in Des Moines, Iowa. He went into the Army from 1942 to 1946 and was discharged as a captain. He attended George Williams College and received a master’s degree in 1948. From 1948 to 1976, he was an executive director for the Houston South Central YMCA, located in the historic Third Ward community, as part of the YMCA of Greater Houston. Mease was a founding member and first president of the Houston Area Urban League. Mease and the late Leo B. Marsh co-sponsored the first Southwest Region YMCA intercultural consultation at Houston YMCA Camp Holden in 1955, an early desegregation initiative for the national YMCA. He helped orchestrate the purchase of YMCA Camp Holden, the Houston Camp for Blacks. In the 1960s, Mease became a primary agent for peaceful desegregation in Houston and led the forces that allowed the city to avoid the racial violence experienced by other U.S. cities at the time. The South Central YMCA became the central meeting place in this effort. Mease conceived the first YMCA Black Achievers Program at the South Central YMCA in 1967, which later was adopted as the national YMCA Black Achievers Program.

Mease was considered a pillar of the community right up until his death at age 100. He was looked at as a visionary who was not hindered by race, age, or demographics. He saw what it was, and fought for what could be. He was a man of great character and was respected by common folk as well as the powerful and wealthy. He believed in and lived the YMCA mission and values each day of his 100 years.

Mease was inducted into the YMCA of the USA’s YMCA Black Achievers Hall of Fame in 2003. He was honored as the founder of the YMCA Black Achievers Program by the YMCA of the USA at its 40th Anniversary Black/Hispanic Conference in New Orleans in 2008.

Although sometimes forgotten, at its beginnings the YMCA was, above all, a religious organization. According to YMCA historian Howard Hopkins, evangelist Dwight L. Moody is “the greatest religious figure in the first century of the American YMCA.” Moody was affiliated with the Chicago (Ill.) YMCA and pressed it in the direction of evangelism. As president of the association, he secured funding to erect the Chicago YMCA’s first building. Moody was the leading religious figure of his day, a revivalist who reached millions. He said he owed more to the YMCA than to any other organization for equipping him to do religious work. At a YMCA secretaries meeting in 1879, he said, “I would recommend a gymnasium, classes, medical lectures, social receptions, music…we do not want simply evangelistic meetings.” Moody was instrumental in establishing the YMCA’s student volunteer movement and what is now known as World Service.

Richard Morse was a nephew to Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister, but never entered the active ministry. Instead, he chose to become the religious editor of The New York Observer, a weekly newspaper founded by his father.

It was through a report of a YMCA convention he wrote for that paper, that Morse sought out work in the YMCA. He first joined the YMCA in 1869 as editor and publisher of the new Association Monthly magazine. This began a 47 year career, which culminated in his appointment as general secretary of the YMCA’s International Committee. Morse was one of the original members of the World’s Committee from 1878 to 1888, and was active in the New York City association.

Morse’s YMCA work took him across the Atlantic Ocean 50 times, including relief work in France during World War I. Among the several books written by Dr. Morse are, “My Life with Young Men,” “A History of the North American Young Men’s Christian Associations,” and “Robert R. McBurney, A Memorial.”

James Naismith had already earned a theology degree from McGill University (Canada) before enrolling at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) as a graduate student.
In 1891, faculty member Luther Gulick asked Naismith to develop a game that students could play indoors during winter months. Combining elements of rugby, lacrosse, soccer, and the children’s game “Duck on a Rock,” Naismith introduced his game, “basket ball,” in December 1891. Some of the earliest basketball games in history were played here in Judd Gymnasia, where Naismith also taught classes.

Naismith became a lifelong member of the International Rules Committee, and in 1936, saw basketball become an Olympic sport. Beginning in 1895, Naismith served as the physical secretary for the Denver (Colo.) YMCA, and attended Gross Medical School. After graduation, he moved to the University of Kansas where, for 41 years, his duties included pastor, coach, athletic director, and professor.

 Over 40 years, Owen Pence became one of the most influential and well-respected representatives of non-governmental organizations. His work began with student work in France with the National War Work Council. He eventually served 23 years on the National Council in Personnel Services staff and as director of the Bureau of Research, Studies and Trends. 

After his retirement in 1949, Pence became Secretary for International Affairs of the World Alliance of YMCAs and represented the Alliance at the United Nations in New York. His apprentice, Arthur L. Swift Jr., says of him in a statement, “No man in our generation has more profoundly and more soundly influenced the development of our Movement. Encouraging, urging, condemning by conference and example, he gave the brotherhood of secretaries and their lay boards and committees in local communities across America a new understanding of the importance and use of careful records and studies.”

Pence also helped characterize the Association, showing its growth and influence trends. He fought for the strengthening of policies in personnel, the raising of standards, and the adequate education of secretaries in their preparation and training. He was also integral in the publication of the YMCA Yearbook, where he analyzed and appraised the Association’s work regarding current events. Swift describes Pence once more, “In loyalty unsurpassed; in critical and creative leadership a guiding force in the Association’s progress; a wise and trusted friend, a keen analyst, an able historian; an untiring worker, exact and exacting, very respectful of detail, yet with mind alert to national and world affairs and their meaning for Christian efforts and hopes.”

Pence authored and edited dozens of prominent essays, research studies, and books for the Association over his 40 years of service. 

The advocacy and perseverance of Jim Raines personifies the YMCA’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice. In the face of a defiant board, community, and network of CEOs, Raines racially integrated the YMCA of Albany, Ga., in 1968. During this time, many southern Ys were not integrated, and some even withdrew from the national Y to stay racially segregated. Despite the lack of support and unity, Raines committed his service to creating a welcoming and inclusive community with a lack of advancement around him. Moreover, Raines displayed more courage and great leadership in his service in San Francisco. Here, Raines was involved in international programs that focused on aid for South Asian refugees. He also continued to fight for diversity and inclusion during the height of the AIDS epidemic, providing strong advocacy in 1980s San Francisco. Raines didn’t keep his knowledge and passion of fighting discrimination to himself, rather he was very influential in coaching, professional development, and helping colleagues in their journey towards social equity. Raines was always committed to engaging and supporting the advancement of women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ members, staff, and program participants. In a dark time, Raines showed the YMCA what was needed to eliminate segregation. Through his courage and action, Raines’ legacy continues to live on through the Y’s work in diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

Edgar M. Robinson first became associated with the YMCA as a college student in New Brunswick, Canada. He served as the chairman of the Boys’ Work Committee and later developed their first camping program. In 1898, he was hired as the Boys’ Work secretary by the Massachusetts-Rhode Island State Committee.

He worked four days a week while attending the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College). Although the emphasis on youth was a minor part of the national organization’s work, Robinson was appointed the Boys’ Work secretary of the International Committee in 1900. At the time, there were twenty Boys’ Work secretaries and 30,000 boys as members nationwide. Thirteen years later, there were 363 secretaries with over 120,000 youth in membership. Robinson developed camping programs, father and son programs, sex education programs, specialized work with employed boys and wartime programs.

He was also instrumental in the development of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1920, Robinson completed a nine-month world tour which led to the 1923 “Conference with Boys” in Austria, attracting 800 delegates from 54 countries. After his retirement, Robinson returned to Springfield College where he served as the dean of the Boy’s Work Department.

Trailblazer. Barrier breaker. Committed. These are just a few of the words used to describe Barbara Roper’s passion as a longtime volunteer for the YMCA. Since 1971, Barbara Roper has been an active volunteer with the YMCA of Central Florida, where she became the first woman chair in 1980. Roper broke many barriers, including serving as the first woman to chair the Y-USA Board of Directors. She made it her mission to challenge the status quo and blazed a path that has opened the door for other women to take on lead roles throughout the Y community. On the international front, Roper was a committee member of the International YMCA and has traveled the world as a representative of the Y Movement, sharing her commitment and dedication at YMCAs in Ecuador, Africa, Nepal, Norway and more.

William S. Sloane was president of the National War Work Council, which was formed in 1917, and raised and managed hundreds of millions of dollars to support YMCA initiatives to serve American and allied troops during World War I. During the war, he was one of the “dollar-a-year men,” who put aside their own personal gain and fortune to put their vast experience earned in the private sector to work by hugely expanding the outreach of the YMCA.

The contributions of the YMCA during the war were amazingly extensive and impressive, involving the construction and operation of thousands of centers for service personnel, support for U.S. YMCAs serving the military, mobilizing well-known entertainers for service abroad, and literally hundreds of other programs and services that employed more than 25,000 YMCA workers. In 1930, Sloane House, a New York YMCA residence for servicemen, was opened in his honor.

James M. Stokes was part of the national governance of the YMCA starting with the Executive Committee and continuing with the International Committee. (These were predecessor organizations to the YMCA of the USA.) Committed to spreading the YMCA idea worldwide, Stokes was instrumental in the development and cultivation of YMCAs in France, Italy, Egypt, Syria, Switzerland, and Great Britain. He was a private banker in New York and also director of a number of large business enterprises in the city. He funded YMCA buildings in St. Petersburg, Russia; Rome, Berlin, Vienna, and other European cities, as well as India, China, and Japan.

Channing Tobias worked to create strong YMCAs in African-American communities throughout his career. He served 12 years as national student secretary, and in 1923, was appointed the senior secretary of the “Colored Men’s Department” of the YMCA.

He traveled extensively in the U.S. working to provide better YMCA services for African-Americans. His work also brought him overseas as a member of the student deputation that visited European relief areas and as a delegate and speaker at the World YMCA Conference in Finland. He provided training in places such as Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Palestine, and the Congo. Tobias’ efforts also reached outside his YMCA work.

As a well-known champion for civil rights, he was an unofficial advisor for Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. He was successful in helping to change discriminating policies in the U.S. Government, including in the Military. His influence extended beyond America. On the eve of WWII, Mahatma Gandhi broke his custom of silence every Monday to talk with Tobias about race relations during a trip to India.

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.

Described by his contemporaries as “the best-loved man of the brotherhood,” Robert Weidensall worked tirelessly for 37 years developing YMCAs in rural communities in the mid-to-late 1800s. Weidensall began his YMCA work after serving in the Civil War.

He laid the foundation for the great network of local and state YMCAs of the Midwest, traveling nearly 200,000 miles over 14 years. He began building YMCAs along the expanding railroads, and soon expanded his work to German-speaking young men, college students, and the men of the South. He advocated for staff training and for state YMCA committees.

He helped found both George Williams College and the organization that would become the Association of YMCA Professionals (AYP). He was described by his peers as a man of “great character, of the farmer-engineer-explorer-pioneer type…He had the gift of prophecy, combined with common sense.”

Raised in the rural countryside of England, George Williams was drawn to London as a young man during the Industrial Revolution. He worked long hours in a city store, living in small, crowded rooms in the same building.

The moral conditions of the inner city were incompatible with Williams’ evangelical Christian outlook. He organized a series of prayer meetings and Bible classes for 11 of his colleagues. These simple meetings formed the basis of the Young Men’s Christian Association. Williams grew to be a prominent businessman in London. He maintained a lifelong affiliation with the rapidly-spreading association, providing influence and financial support.

In recognition of his contribution to English society and the world, Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894. After his death in 1905, he was commemorated by a stained-glass window in the nave of Westminster Abbey. Sir George Williams is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The YMCA: From 1914 to 1918, the conflict that would come to be known as the First World War ensnared 28 nations with a total population of 1.5 billion, or 90% of the world’s known populace. Fifty-nine million men fought in World War I, resulting in 7.7 million deaths and 18.6 million injuries. By the time America entered the war in 1917, it was clear that World War I would be remembered as a great humanitarian crisis. Before the United states joined the battle, the YMCA leveraged America’s status as a neutral nation, providing relief to prisoners of war on both sides of the conflict. During this period, 65 YMCA secretaries worked with prisoners of war in Great Britain, France, Italy, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Serving over five million detainees through morale-building activities and the provision of equipment, the YMCA’s work ensured that war prisoners received both humane treatment and mental welfare. The ability of the YMCA to engage in this work speaks volumes to its credibility, and the value world leaders placed upon the Movement. On April 6, 1917 President Wilson declared that the United States would join the Allied Forces, officially beginning America’s involvement in the war. Immediately, the YMCA pledged its support. Expanding upon its legacy of service during previous conflicts, the YMCA was asked to take on nearly all human service activities for the U.S. military. Over the next two years, the YMCA dispatched 25,926 men and women to minister to the mental, spiritual, and physical needs of the Allied Forces in what former President William Howard Taft called “one of the greatest achievements of peace in all the history of human warfare.”

The Work: Selecting from approximately 200,000 applications, the YMCA divided the workers between home and overseas assignments. Women workers comprised 20% of the total, with twice as many serving overseas as on the home front. Drawing upon its expertise in mental, spiritual, and physical development, the YMCA brought the full suite of its programs to bear in the war effort. Educators offered literacy and English instruction as well as courses on a wide variety of topics. Ministers provided spiritual guidance and conducted religious services. General Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, specifically asked the YMCA to organize athletic activities to help make the troops “fit to fight.” In addition to its personnel, the YMCA also organized 1,470 entertainers to be sent overseas to perform for troops. It conducted this work through 26 leave centers in France, 4,000 “huts” and tents, and 1,500 canteens and post exchanges. The Y funded this work through the United War Work Campaign, which raised $192,000,000.

The Aftermath of War: After the war, the YMCA organized the Inter-Allied Games. About 1,500 athletes representing 18 nations participated. The YMCA paid for the design and construction of Pershing Stadium, the French donated the land, and American troops built the facility. YMCA personnel received 319 citations and decorations, including the French Legion d’Honneur, the Order of the British Empire, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Distinguished Service Medal. Sadly, six men and two women working under the YMCA banner were killed in action. WWI marked a turning point for the YMCA. The success of its work validated its approach to holistic development in addition to introducing the YMCA to millions of individuals who benefited from its programs for the first time. We remember and recognize these extraordinary individuals who exemplify the YMCA cause.