YMCA

150th Anniversary

KENNETH L. GLADISH, PH.D.

JOHN M. FERRELL

A Newcomen Address THE NEWCOMEN SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES In April1923, the late L. F. Loree (1858-1940) of New York City, then dean ofAmerican railroad presidents, established ~ ~ ' a group interested in business history, as distinguished from .. political history. Later known as "American Newcomen," its ... objectives were expanded to focus on the growth, development, . . contributions and influence of Industry, Transportation, Com- ~~ . . munication, the Utilities, Mining, Agriculture, Banking, Finance, Economics, Insurance, Education, Invention and the Law. · In short, The Newcomen Society recognizes people and institutions making positive contributions to the world around us and celebrates the role of the free enterprise system in our increasingly global marketplace.

The Newcomen Society of the United States is a nonprofit membership corporation chartered in 1961 in the State ofMaine, with headquarters at412 Newcomen Road, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, located 30 miles west of Center City, Philadelphia.

Meetings are held throughout the United States, where Newcomei:t addresses are presented by organizational leaders in their respective fields. Most Newcomen presentations feature anecdotal life stories ofcorporate organizations, interpreted through the ambitions, successes, struggles and ultimate achievements of pioneers whose efforts helped build the foundations of their enterprises.

The Society's name perpetuates the life and work of Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729), the British pioneer whose valuable improvements to the newly invented steam engine in Staffordshire, England brought him lasting fame in the field of the Mechanical Arts. The N ewcomen Engines, in use from 1712 to 1775, helped pave the way for the Industrial Revolution. Newcomen's inventive genius preceded by more than 50 years the brilliant work in steam by the world-famous James Watt of Scotland.

The Newcomen Society of the United States is affiliated with The Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology, with offices at The Science Museum, South Kensington, London, S.W.7, England. The Society is also associated in union with the Royal Society for the Encouragement ofArts, Manufactures and Commerce, whose offices are at 6 John Adam Street, London, W.C.2, England.

Members of American Newcomen who visit ~urope are invited to visit the home ofThomas Newcomen at Dartmouth in South Devonshire, England and to see a working model of a Dartmouth Newcomen Engine. "For 150 years, the YMCA has been a pioneering force in the United States - a force so powerful that, as we begin the 21 st century, it is arguably among the most successful social institutions our country has ever known."

-Kenneth L. Gladish, Ph.D . This address, dealing with the history ofthe YMCA inAmerica, was delivered at a '2ooi Massachusetts Meeting" of The Newcomen Society ofthe United States held in Boston, when Dr. Kenneth L. Gladish and Mr. john M. Ferrell were guests of honor and speakers on October 25th, 200I. YMCA

150thAnniversary

KENNETH L. GLADISH, PH.D. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

YMCA OF THE USA

JOHN M. FERRELL PRESIDENT

YMCA OF GREATER BOSTON

THE NEWCOMEN SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES NEW YORK EXTON PORTLAND

2001 Newcomen Publication Number IS59

Copyright, 2002 YMCA

Permission to abstract is granted provided proper credit is allowed

The Newcomen Society, as a body, is not responsible for opinions expressed in the following pages

First Printing: August, 2002

SET UP, PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR THE NEWCOMEN SOCIE1Y OF THE UNITED STATES BY CRWGRAPHICS. OPENING REMARKS AND INTRODUCTION OF DR. GLADISH BY JOHN FERRELL IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETIS ON OCTOBER 25TH, 200!.

OSTON IN 1851 boasted a population of140,000 residents, having Bgrown six-fold in the early decades of the 19th century. The city was a commercial, manufacturing, and financial center, creating many employment opportunities for young men moving to the city from the farms of New England, transforming the region from an agricultural to an industrial economy. There were significant religious stirrings within the Protestant churches, with the evangelical denominations competing with the Unitarians for the souls of the populace. It was a time marked by evangelical revivals, the founding of Bible societies, moral reform groups, and benevolent organizations. It was in this milieu that America's first YMCA was born. Retired sea captain and lay Baptist preacher Thomas V. Sullivan gathered a group of men representing 20 evangelical churches in the Spring Lane Chapel of the Old South Church in Boston on December 29, 1851. It was the third meeting that month to discuss the creation of the Young Men's Christian Association, based on an organization founded in London in 1844. There they approved a constitution for the new association with the stated purpose of improving "the spiritual and mental condition of young men." The Boston Y was created one month after the Montreal association, and was immediately followed by YMCAs in New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati and dozens of towns and cities across the country. The new YMCA quickly elected officers, accepted members, and rented rooms on the fourth floor above Jones and Balls Store at Wash­ ington and Summer Streets in downtown Boston. Its new programs of

{5} Bible study, employment services, housing referrals, and religious train­ ing became standard fare for YMCAs everywhere. Today's Huntington Avenue YMCA, in its fifth location since 1851, continues the tradition. At the Y's first annual meeting in May of 1853 (forever confusing succeeding generations of Y staff responsible for numbering annual meetings), the numbers were proudly reported: there were 1,600 mem­ bers; a library of1,600 volumes; expenses of$6,856; a surplus of$1,900; a "well-furnished reading room"; and "standing and name among the benevolent societies of the day." The meeting began with prayer and reading from the Scriptures, followed by the choir and congregation singing a hymn:

How blest the sacred tie that binds In sweet communion kindred minds! How swift the heavenly course they run, Whose hearts, whose faith, whose hopes are one!

The Young Men's Christian Association was off and running in Amer"ica.

[ 6} T IS AN HONOR TO BE WITH YOU ALL THIS EVENING, and to introduce I tonight's keynote speaker, Ken Gladish, national executive director of the YMCA of the USA. Like many of us in the room tonight, Ken has been involved with the Y since childhood. Growing up in Northbrook, Illinois, he and his family were active members and volunteers at the North Suburban YMCA. He first served professionally as an assistant director for youth and community programs, and remained committed to Y work as a member oflocal boards in Virginia and Indiana, the national board, and as a delegate to the YMCA World Alliance Executive Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. Before Ken came to join the YMCA movement as its twelfth national executive director, he, along with his wife, Kendal, and their two children, Donald and Ellen, lived in Indianapolis, where Ken made his professional commitment to community development for over two decades as the president or executive director of a number of organiza­ tions including the Indianapolis Foundation, William E. English Foun­ dation, Central Indiana Community Foundation, Indiana Humanities Council, and Indiana Donors Alliance. Ken received his bachelor of arts degree from Hanover College in Indiana, his master's and doctorate degrees in government and foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, and an honorary doctorate in humane letters from the University ofindianapolis. He has also taught at the collegiate level at the University ofVirginia, Butler University, and Indiana University-Indianapolis. In the great tradition of volunteerism, Ken is a trustee of Hanover College, former president of the Rotary Club of Indianapolis, an active elder in the Presbyterian Church, and former commissioner of the Indiana Martin Luther King Holiday Commission. He currently represents the YMCA of the USA and the movement as a member of a wide range ofboards and committees nationwide. Members of theN ewcomen Society and distinguished guests, it is my pleasure, as a friend and colleague, to introduce to you, Ken Gladish.

( 7} Thank you, John, for that introduction and for the fine leadership you are providing to the YMCA. And thank you to the Board ofTrustees of The N ewcomen Society for honoring the YMCA and for inviting me to address all of you tonight. It truly is a pleasure to be here. LMOST 49 YEARS AGO TO THIS DAY- on October 31, 1952- the A then -named N ewcomen Society in North America met in New York City for an event similar to our celebration tonight. On that day, Cleveland E. Dodge was introduced by Dr. Thomas]. Watson, founder and chairman ofiBM, to address the subject of ''YMCA: A Century at New York." Mr. Dodge, one of the great YMCA volunteers of his time, was part of the third generation ofDodge family men to serve the association. He was the standard bearer of a great American industrial family; heir to its equally great fortune; and like many other distinguished volunteers, he had served the YMCA in his local community and at the national level. On that day in Gotham a half century ago, Dodge was honored to be present at the invitation ofThe Newcomen Society and challenged to speak to the remarkable history of the YMCA in its first 100 years­ most especially to its time-tested service to America's largest city and his hometown. Though I am not a son of the great city of Boston in which we meet, and though I am not heir to a great industrial fortune, tonight I find myself in a position similar to that ofMr. Dodge a half century ago. I am honored to be here as a custodian and steward of the YMCA story, as we share together our association's lustrous history and mark our sesquicen­ tennial. We greatly appreciate the kind invitation of the Society, and we are particularly pleased that this event is the product of the joint efforts of The Newcomen Society, the YMCA of Greater Boston and the YMCA of the USA. *** . As we meet tonight, we do so in the shadow of the tragic and inescapable events of September 11, and their impact on our capital city, Washington, D.C., and our city of American capital, New York.

( 8} We are oppressed by the events of that day. We mourn the lives lost, the families separated, the communities uprooted, the enterprise crushed. We mourn the weight ofhatred that moves among us and motivates such horrific, evil, and criminal acts. We pray for safety, we long for peace. We · hope for redemption, we cry for release. All of us wonder how it can be that in a time of such wondrous opportunity, and in a nation of such extraordinary affirmative achievement, we must face such tragic circum­ stance. Let us pause for a brief moment of quiet reflection before we continue our celebration of a movement that affirms potential and possibility in human community- that stands as light in opposition to the darkness. Thank you. * * * It is fitting that we should be here in Boston to celebrate this distinguished American YMCA for two reasons. First, because Boston is the place ofthe YMCA's birth, and, second, because Boston is also the birthplace of the larger American Experiment. This intersection will be the focus of my remarks this evening. *** As John Ferrell reminded us in his opening comments, not too far from this spot, in this fair city by the sea, the YMCA in the United States was born when Boston sea captain Thomas Valentine Sullivan, inspired by the witness and work ofthe YMCA in England, gathered a few hearty converts to the idea that Boston should have a YMCA. For 150 years, the YMCA has been a pioneering force in the United States-a force so powerful that, as we begin the 21 sr century, it is arguably among the most successful social institutions our country has ever known. One out of three Americans reports being a YMCA member at some point in life, but what's even more remarkable is that the YMCA has touched virtually all Americans in some way. YMCAs invented basket­ ball and volleyball. YMCAs pioneered in camping, public libraries, night schools, and teaching English as a second language. YMCAs introduced the world's first indoor pool and group swimming lessons. YMCAs

{9} VIEW OF GRAYS BUILDING, SUMMER, CORNER OF WASHINGTON STREET offered after-school childcare long before "latch key" kids had been given a name. And, YMCAs have provided war relief since the Civil War, aiding millions of soldiers at home and abroad. In 150years, the YMCA has broughtaboutmanygreatorganizational programs too-programs it started, nurtured and shared, such as not-for­ profit staff training and certification, which launched the field of professional development. It also established the first retirement fund for any major social welfare organization, founded upon a donation from industrialist John D. Rockefeller. In addition, YMCAs have provided the right environment for ideas and organizations that might never have started without them: The Boy Scouts of America, Camp Fire Girls, the Negro National Baseball League, the Gideons, Toastmasters, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and Father's Day. All got their start at YM CAs. The YMCA helped found the United Service Organizations (USO), and the Peace Corps was patterned after a YMCA program. The list goes on and on.

{ 10} *** For the basic history ofthe YMCA, you can turn to any number offine publications. Our National Centennial History, published in 1951 and the wonderful histories of local YMCAs, including Boston's fine new publication. The memoirs and papers ofYMCA leaders down through the years, especially those of John R. Mott, who was director of our national council from 1915 to 1928 and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. And the histories of the YMCA-founded institutions of higher education such as Springfield College of Springfield, Massachu­ setts- represented here tonight by its president as well as faculty and student body members- and Boston's own Northeastern University.

OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN BOSTON WHERE ON DECEMBER 29, 1851, THE YMCA STARTED IN THE U.S.

[ 11) FIRST RAILROAD YMCA IN CLEVELAND

It is in the patterns of these histories that we will find meaning. I contend that the YMCA is a quintessentially American institution. The YMCA is best understood in its historical likeness to the main and salutary streams of the river of the American Experience. I'd like to call your attention to three such themes: Fir_st, the growth of the YMCA in the United States, like that of the country itself, represents an arc of achievement in almost every quanti­ tative category of measurement. At its beginning in 1851, a scant 32 souls committed themselves to the fellowship of the YMCA. Since then its growth has been miraculous, as evidenced by the following figures:

• 1876 25th anniversary 73,000 members and 882 YMCAs • 1901 50th anniversary 300,000 members and 1,471 YMCAs • 1926 75th anniversary 912,000 members and 1,510 YMCAs • 19 51 1QQth anniversary 1.9 million members and 1,672 YMCAs • 1976 125th anniversary 6.0 million members and 1,786 YMCAs

{ 12} That brings us to this, our sesquicentennial year. The numbers continue to amaze:

• 2,434 YMCAs • 18 million members- 8.8 million local members, and an additional 9.2 million participant members in our programs • 600,710 volunteers • 500,000 children in child care • $787 million in charitable contributions with an additional $383 million in public support • $3.91 billion in total enterprise charity and service to American families and their communities In large measure, this growth has mirrored the growth of America itself. It is the product of creative will and energy as well as the enterprise and initiative ofYMCA men and women, both volunteer and profes­ sional, down through the years.

EARLY YMCA GYMNASIUM FIRST CONSTRUCTED IN 1869

[ 13} COFFEE WAGON FOR SOLDIERS

This arc of achievement is quintessentially American - and it marks the history of the YMCA. A second YMCA experience that mirrors the American tradition is the association's expanding circle of inclusion and engagement. The larger American story begins, even in this Massachusetts com­ monwealth ofliberty, with a narrower definition ofwho matters-ofwho is a citizen- than would be expected from a reading of our founding fathers' philosophical treatises and a review of our basic democratic documents. Who mattered at the founding, who counted as citizens, were only white men above a certain age who owned property in certain parts ofthe new continent. So, too, it was with the YMCA at its founding. A reading of the constitutional documents and early experience that gave birth to the movement would have led one to the understanding that mostly white men above a certain age, in certain places and of certain faith and denomination should be heirs to the gifts the association had to offer. Yet

[ 14} CHICAGO'S FAREWELL HALL a reading of the Christian gospel and the confessions of Protestant tradition, which inspired the YMCA movement at its birth, would seem to brook no such limitation. As with the history of America, an essential and consequential expansion of who counts and who can belong marks the history of the YMCA. In America, the YMCA grew beyond the 1869 Portland Basis-Test, which limited active membership in local YMCAs to members of evangelical Christian churches. Eighty years of active debate, resistance, and creative application finally led in 1931 to the elimination oftheologi­ cal tests of membership and the abandonment.of a narrow theological identity for the movement. Growing through the sordid and tragic racism seemingly captured in the genetic code ofAmerica, the YMCA too struggled with the issues of segregation and the color line. But as early as 1853, former slave Anthony Bowen, a minister and the first African American to work in the U.S. Patent Office, founded a black YMCA in Washington, D.C.

[ 15} In 1864, E.V.C. Eato of New York City became the first black delegate to attend the YMCA annual convention. And in 1911, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, transformed both the color and capability of the YMCA by providing enormous challenge grants to construct YMCAs in 25 great African-American communities. These places and the larger YMCA family served as essential resources in the successful struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. When a fine young student and scholar, Nina Mjagkij of Ball State University, wrote a summary of the history of the YMCA in the African American community a few years ago, she referred to the YMCA's service in the title of her book- Light in the Darkness. . The Reverend Andrew Young- civil rights father, former mayor of Atlanta, former U.S. ambassador, and boyhood member of the New Orleans Dryades YMCA- has written: "The YMCA, as much as any other institution, has a record of working on desegregation." So it was, as well, with the issue of gender equity and inclusion of women and girls. The onrushing years have redefined the YMCA from a boys' club, a men's gym and a Protestant chapel into a place ·for all persons and families. And in special ways, the always-vital presence ofwomen in the movement has been lifted to new heights by a contemporary generation.

FIRST BUILDING FOR RAILROAD YMCA BUILT IN 1880 IN DETROIT

{ 16} As late as 1933, women and girls made up only 6 percent of total membership. Today, they account for one half of all members and a substantially higher percentage of all staff. All these statistics add up to a marvelous count, but what does it mean? It means that another essential element in the genius of the YMCA movement has been its historic reach above and beyond itself. A third common element in American and YMCA history is found in the YMCA's constant preoccupation with the question of character. · From the founding of the American republic, a complex and perplex­ ing preoccupation with the public concern for private character has been the stimulus for countless debates, idealistic schemes, and true progress. This republic, its founders promised, was not just about the achievement ofutilitarian ends, economi ~ progress, and material equity. No, more was promised. And from the beginning, this "more" fell into the hands of America's voluntary associations. It was in and through these associa­ tions that the fate of the promised "more" was to be worked out. In large measure, this "more" had to do with providing space for the common man to realize his full potential and thereby become a creature who transcended the historic limitations of caste and class, race and position, birthright and determined role. In this great work the YMCA was born, and today it still looms large on the stage of such action. When Springfield College's Luther Gulick proposed in 1891 a red triangle emblazoned with the words "spirit, mind and body" as the symbol ofthe YMCA, he captured quite well the intent ofthe association and its view of the human character. It's an American view-holistic, affirmative, and inspiring. Gulick perfected what was then advocated in the movement as muscular Christianity-believing, first, that man's well being depended on an essential unity of "body, mind, and spirit," and, second, that development in each dimension was both needed and possible for all those who sought to grow to their full potential. Long before contemporary political parties debated the character and values of America's youth in their conventions and platforms, the YMCA was at work with a sure and certain sense ofwhat values mattered and how to translate them into the characters of me~ and women, boys and girls. { 17} In contemporary times we have defined these values as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. But for our entire history, in all of our programs - higher education, work, youth clubs, leadership develop­ ment, parent-child programs, camping and sports- character has come first. *** So there you have it- reduced to its simplest elements- the story of the YMCA in America. • We have been an association built on enterprise. • We have been a fellowship reflecting increasing diversity. • We have been an organization invested in the achievement of character. A recitation of this YMCA devotion to a quintessentially American project built on enterprise, diversity and character, however, does not tell the whole story of the Association and its history. From the beginning, the YMCA also has been a witness rooted in an obligation that transcends its American character. This witness has been motiVated by the Y's historic and continuing identity as a faith-based institution. The Association was conceived in the middle of the 19th century to save souls through conversion, redemption, and active living. As it progressed through two centuries, it increasingly moved from a focus on telling people what to believe to showing people how to live. All along, however, it has remained steadfast in its exploration of and advocacy for the fully realized and wholly abundant life of its members and their communities. In this way, it has sustained both its historic and its prophetic role. Herein may lie the secret of the association's success and the power of its impact on rising generations of Americans, their families and their communities. The enterprise, openness, and values of the YMCA were seeded long ago in the American Christlan conscience which gave birth to our nation's revolution in civic association, charitable action, and moral commitment. . ***

( 18) If the "spirit of the Lord" was upon the founding generation of the YMCA, we might well ask where it is to be found today. And today, of course, is a different day, both for America and for the YMCA. In a complex and increasingly diverse America, the YMCA is still called to change lives. In this work we are compelled by faith and history, as well as experience and conviction, to·affirm what we know to be true -we are called at our best to do the work we were created to complete. Like the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew scriptures, and Jesus of Nazareth in the Christian gospels, we will find the right "spirit" in our own work when we:

Preach good news to the poor; Proclaim release to the captives; Seek recovery ofsight to the blind; and Set at liberty those who are oppressed.

As students of these sacred texts understand, of course, we are all in some way poor, captive, blind, and oppressed. The reversal of these conditions and the realization of our full and blessed potential as individuals depend on the unified development of our spiritual, intellec­ tual, and physical personalities. This has been and must remain the work of the YMCA as it touches the lives of men and women, boys and girls, in the new century which lies ahead.

( 19} (FROMLEFTTORIGHT)RUSSELLV.CORSINI,JR.,CHAIRMANOFNEWCOMEN'SMASSACHUSETTS COMMITTEE, KEN GLADISH, JOHN FERRELL, AND JOHN H. "TURK" THACHER, JR., VICE PRESIDENT OF THE NEWCOMEN SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES.

( 20} "Were American N ewcomen to do naught else, our work is well done if we succeed in sharing with America a strengthened inspiration to continue the struggle towards a nobler Civilization­ through wider knowledge and understanding of the hopes, ambitions, and deeds of leaders in the past who have upheld Civilization's material progress. As we look backward, let us look forward.''

-CHARLES PENROSE ( J886-1958) Senior Vice-President for North America The Newcomen Society for the study of the history of Engineering and Technology (192J-I957) Chairman for North America (1958)

This statement, crystallizing a broad purpose ofthe Society, was first read at the Newcomen Meeting at New York World's Fair'onAugust s, 1939, when American N ewcomen were guests of The British Government.

"Acto rum M emores simul affectamus Agenda" "The meeting began with prayer and reading from the Scriptures, followed by the choir and congregation singing a hymn:

How blest the sacred tie that binds In sweet communion kindred minds! How swift the heavenly course they run, Whose hearts, whose faith, whose hopes are one!

The Young Men's Christian Association was off and running in America."

-John M. Ferrell