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Golf Business Canada
William & Renee Powell
A Life Long Committ ment
“There was so much more that she had to accomplish. She took her father’s legacy and every day, she tries to continue it and better the game of golf and give all people access to a golf course and put a golf club in their hands,” said Post. “It was about all the other things that she was going to be able to do and she’s done it. She’s always stepped up.”
Indeed she has, travelling to Africa more than 25 times to host golf clinics, focusing on growing the game through youth, women, seniors, minorities and military veterans. In 2011, she launched Clearview H.O.P.E. (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere), a cost-free, year-round therapeutic and recreational golf program speci cally for women veterans.
As a public speaker, Powell has appeared in front of audiences at home in the United States and internationally. She also sits on several boards of directors, including the Northern Ohio PGA, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Mercy Medical Center, and Pathway Caring for Children. She is also a member of Rotary International.
It’s little wonder then that she, like her dad, has received several individual honours along the way. In 2008, she was named honourary doctor of laws from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, an institution that put Powell’s name on a residence earlier this year. She’s also an inductee into the PGA of America Hall of Fame and a winner of the “First Lady of Golf” Award, among several other honours. She also sits on the Golf 20/20 Diversity Task Force with the same focus that her dad had 70 years ago.
“Everything that I’ve ever done my entire life has been through and with the world of golf and the fact that it’s so different every day and there’s so much to it and people, no matter what career they’re in, if they’re looking for a meeting or a conference, where do they go? They want to go to a resort where there’s a golf course,” said Powell.
“It’s never the same every day. The jobs and careers in the world of golf are vast, so it’s never boring, What keeps me going is the fact that if it was the same hum-drum thing every day, maybe that wouldn’t keep me going,” she added. “You don’t have to be a certain size, strength or age. I can’t see any other career or sport that has the same ingredients as golf.”
The discussion of diversity and inclusion is not a new one in golf. In fact, it’s one that William Powell started back in the 1940s when he established Clearview Golf Course in East Canton, Ohio, which opened with nine holes in 1948 and expanded to 18 in 1978.
In doing so, Powell became the rst African American to build, own and operate a golf course that, in 2001, was designated a National Historic Site. Powell experienced discrimination throughout his life, including his return from World War II when he was denied a GI loan to build Clearview, forcing him to seek help from friends and family and work nights as a security guard.
Yet, he opened Clearview with his wife Marcella with the intent of it being a place where all ethnicities were welcome and it was in that environment that their children Renee, Lawrence and the late William would grow up. Renee and Lawrence continue to manage Clearview after Williams’ passing on New Year’s Eve in 2009 at the age of 93.
Among the honours William, a PGA of America Lifetime Member, received include induction into the National Black Golf Hall of Fame, Honourary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Wilberforce University and Baldwin-Wallace College, the Congressional Black Caucus Unsung Hero Award, induction into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame and PGA of America Hall of Fame and the PGA Distinguished Service Award .
He also left a legacy that his children continue to this day. “I love golf and golf keeps me going, the fact that I
grew up watching my parents and the fact that my dad built this golf course because golf is a great sport,” said Renee, who will join Lawrence in February when he collects the Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America for lifetime commitment.
“(William) believed in equality and justice, especially through a sport like the game of golf and when you start denying people access, it’s not good. I’ve always been around the game of golf, tried to make it better, I feel that everybody should play it because it’s an incredible sport, so those are the things that keep me going,” she said.
In 1967, Renee Powell became only the second African American to play on the LPGA Tour and was joined as a travelling companion and roomie the following year by Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Sandra Post of Oakville, ON. Post and Powell had met in their teens at the 1962 U.S. Junior Championship in Buffalo, where they played a practice round together. Post’s dad, Cliff, and William Powell hit if off immediately as did their daughters.
“They had so many similarities with my father being a farmer. There was tractors involved, let’s put it that way. They really hit if off, just as Renee and I did,” said Post.
Powell received death threats and Post got an eyeful of racism and the turbulent ‘60s in the U.S. through refusal of service at restaurants or lost reservations at motels, among other examples. They remain friends today, but Post believes Powell’s calling went beyond just playing the game.