Basketball Hall of Fame, Rotary Fete ‘Service Above Self’ Honorees

SPRINGFIELD — The Basketball Hall of Fame and the Rotary Club of Springfield have announced their honorees for the fifth annual Basketball Hall of Fame/Springfield Rotary “Service Above Self” Luncheon on Dec. 5 at noon on the Hall of Fame’s Center Court. This year’s honorees — who live out the Rotary motto “service above self” — are local residents York Mayo and Bob Perry, and national honoree Bob Delaney.

Mayo is a long-time community volunteer and has served as chairperson of a $1 million capital campaign for ReStore Home Improvement. He is CEO and president of the Roger L. Putnam Technical Fund. He has served on the advisory board of ROCA and is co-founder of the Millbrook Scholars Program. He is the co-founder of the Springfield Unity Festival, which was held the week of Oct. 12. He currently mentors five people. In addition, he serves on several boards and committees regionally and nationally.

Mayo has been the recipient of several prestigious service awards, including an honorary degree from Springfield Technical Community College, the 2010 William Pynchon Award, the 2010 United Way Spirit of Caring Award, the Western New England University Presidential Medallion, and the National Conference for Community and Justice Human Relations Award. He is active in the Christ the King Lutheran Church congregation in Wilbraham.

Mayo graduated from Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y. in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. After six years with Mobil Oil and Carborundum Abrasives, he joined American Saw and Manufacturing Co. as a Lenox sales representative in Baltimore, Md. Over the course of his 30-year career with American Saw, he served in many capacities, including sales representative, sales manager, vice president of International Sales, and senior vice president of Sales and Marketing.

Perry has always been involved in the community. A few of the organizations he has been involved with include the Exchange Club, the Greater Springfield YMCA, the Western Mass. Lacrosse Officials Assoc., the Roger L. Putnam Technical Fund, the Children’s Chorus of Springfield, and Ronald McDonald House, as well as being a platelet donor at the American Red Cross.

His greatest passion has been Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity. Recruited by Mayo in 2000, Perry became committed to the organization. He is currently the board president, a position he has held for 10 of the 14 years he has been involved. He and his wife celebrated their 35th anniversary with a groundbreaking of the local Habitat’s 35th house, for which they were the major sponsors.

In 2011, he co-founded, with Mayo and Dr. Mark Jackson, the Millbrook Scholars program, which provides housing, tutoring, and life-skills mentoring to graduating seniors from Springfield area high schools. Perry was named a 2011 Hometown Hero by Reminder Publications and a 2011 Difference Maker by BusinessWest magazine, and earned the William Pynchon Medal from the Ad Club of Western Mass. in 2012.

Perry is a 1973 graduate of Northeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He started his career in public accounting with Grant Thornton in Boston, where he became a CPA in 1976. He later worked for Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull and Bitsoli, where he became partner of the Springfield office in 1987 after five years with the company. He had his own consulting practice from 1991 to 1995, providing business-planning services to closely held companies. In 1995, Perry joined Meyers Brothers and became partner in 1998. He retired as an active partner of the firm in 2008, but continues to provide technical and consulting services to the firm on a part-time basis.

National honoree Delaney is a dedicated and hard-working NBA referee and crew chief, consultant, public speaker, and founder of two basketball-officiating academies. He has a background in law enforcement and worked with the New Jersey State Police. In a joint operation between the New Jersey State Police and FBI, his years of undercover work and testimony led directly to the conviction of more than 30 Mafia criminals.

Tickets to the luncheon are $50. For more information on sponsorships or to purchase tickets to the luncheon, contact Jason Fiddler, director of Museum Sales, at (413) 231-5540 or [email protected].