William Powell left a lasting legacy in northeast Ohio. His Clearview Golf Club remains the only African American designed, built and owned golf course in the United States and is a National Historic Site. His legacy has been acknowledged by the Professional Golfers Association as they named him a recipient of the PGA Distinguished Service Award.
Though coming near the end of his life, this award recognized a lifetime devoted to golf and to diversity that has now been recognized in a children's picture book titled "Twice as Good." Written by Richard Michelson and illustrated by Eric Velasquez, the book had a big debut in a weekend full of events this month in Canton.
Kent Oliver, executive director of the Stark County District Library, introduced William Powell's daughter, Renee Powell, Michelson and Velasquez to a crowd of around 250 people at the library on Feb. 4.
On Friday, the trio had visited with school children at Belden and East Canton elementary schools. They shared how a book can encourage, what inspires an illustrator, and how children can achieve great things by working "twice as hard" and trying to be "twice as good."
Renee explained her father's legacy to the audience during the "Tee-Off Black History Month" day at the library. Events of the day included students from Belden Elementary School reading Twice as Good to the audience, children played putt-putt golf in the library and were presented with a copy of "P is for Putt" on completing the course, and the day finished with Michelson and Velasquez explaining their process and motivation for the book.
More than 80 copies of the book "Twice As Good" were sold, with proceeds helping to fund the Clearview Legacy Foundation.
Powell commented, "I think that 'Twice As Good' shows what you can achieve if you stick to what you believe and never give up. My father built the first nine holes of Clearview by hand when he was 26 years old. The second nine holes weren't built until almost 30 years later. But he continued to hang on to what he loved and achieved as much as he could."
When asked what Clearview means to the East Canton area, Renee said, "East Canton is the community I was born and grew up in. Having something that is a national/international venue that people throughout the world know about is special to our community. It is a unique and wonderful addition to Stark County. There are roughly 16,000 golf courses in the United States, only 15 of those courses are on the historical registry. So, Clearview is important to East Canton, but it is much more, it is part of our county, state and nation. We hear from people from all over the world. People know where Canton is because of Clearview - the magnitude of its importance is greater than people can comprehend.
"People come from California, Georgia, Japan, Scotland just to visit Clearview," Renee continued. "The Chairman of the Rules Committee for the Royal and Ancient of St. Andrews, Scotland, Alan Holmes - the home of golf - walked in the door to our course, because it is that significant.
"Rich and Eric have never played a round of golf, but they saw the historical importance of Clearview and what my father accomplished. We established the Clearview Legacy Foundation for Education, Preservation and Turf Grass Research in 2001 to maintain and preserve this wonderful legacy in our community."
Renee also mentioned that her brother, Larry Powell, course superintendent, works with scientists on turf grass and re-establishment of native grasses. He also is talking with NASA about hydroponics and how we might establish grasses on Mars.
"The education component is never far from us," Renee stated. "We have programs with the LPGA/USGA Girls Golf, the Women's Veterans Programs, Sarah Care, and others to further our mission of education."
"Twice as Good" is available at the USGA Museum gift shop and also in bookstores.
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