When Andy Boyd was chosen as director of the Frank P. Phillips YMCA in 2009, no one had to show him around the facility.
He knew it by heart, you could say.
Boyd, 62, will retire as director at year’s end, marking another chapter in what has been a life-long association with the Y.
Like so many Columbus boys, Boyd spent his summers and Saturdays at the Y.
“It’s funny,” Boyd said. “I’ve been doing a lot of recollecting lately. I grew up in Columbus and rode my bike to the Y every day in the summer, played every sport they had and even remember the names of all my coaches.
“It was the place kids went,” he added. “I’d come down here on Saturday and play basketball and then go over to the Ritz Cafe. You could get a cheeseburger and a Pepsi for 47 cents. I still remember that.”
For Boyd, his association with the Y extended beyond childhood. He began coaching youth sports at the Y even before finishing his degree at Mississippi State and continued to coach as his three sons participated in the Y sports leagues, and he eventually served on the organization’s board of directors.
When Charlie Box stepped down as Y director, he remained on the board, helping choose his successor.
“It was an easy decision,” Box said. “In a lot of ways Andy paralleled my path to the job. We both coached at the Y for years and years and served on the board. So I got to know him pretty well. When I left, I felt like we couldn’t have found a better person for the job. He had a heart for the Y.”
The Frank P. Phillips YMCA was founded in 1924. The downtown building opened in 1931. Today, the Y also includes facilities in Caledonia and New Hope.
Although others have served as director for longer tenures, Boyd will be remembered for his leadership during a tumultuous 10-year stint with triumphs and challenges.
“When you think of Andy’s time there, finances were really a big challenge,” said board member Bill Brigham. “He did a great job with the finances under some very difficult circumstances. He made some personal sacrifices, too. He’ll be leaving now with our finances in a lot better shape.”
Boyd’s tenure featured a major and long-overdue renovation at the Columbus facility completed in 2016, the crowning achievement of his tenure. But there were some difficult decisions, too. In 2017, when the Y’s board voted to close the New Hope facility due to dwindling membership, it was Boyd who not only broke the news to the membership but played a key role in helping members save their Y, interceding on their behalf as they staged a successful membership drive.
Boyd also played a prominent role in the Y’s decision to sell Camp Pratt, where generations of kids attended the Y’s summer camp, in January 2018.
Those moves, Boyd said, not only reflected new realities of the Y’s mission but set the Y on firm financial footing and affirmed what Boyd calls its “elevator message.”
“Everybody knows the Y, but the question for some is what are we all about,” Boyd said. “For us, it’s youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. All of the things we do fit under that umbrella.”
Boyd said sale of Camp Pratt was a difficult decision, given the place it held in the memories of thousands of camp-goers since the 1930s.
In the end, however, Boyd said he and the board felt the sale was in the best longterm interest of the Y.
“Times change. Kids change,” he said. “We didn’t have the money to invest in sustaining the property. When we sold the property, we were able to take those proceeds and pay down some debt, put a little money in reserve and do some other things at our facilities. It was hard to justify the expense of keeping something we only used eight weeks a year when there were so many other needs. Having said that, it was a very difficult decision, but we felt — and still feel — it was the right decision.”
The renovation at the Columbus Y, completed over six months and funded primarily through member donations, remains a high point in Boyd’s tenure.
Although the biggest feature of the renovation was the conversion of the original gym into a Healthy Living Center where the bulk of the facility’s exercise equipment now resides, he is most proud of the common area that was created when the Y’s main entrance was shifted to Second Avenue. The area contains tables and chairs. A pot of coffee is always available for members to relax and talk to each other.
“I think it’s the best thing we did (in the renovation),” Boyd said. “When you walk in the front door and sit down and have a cup of coffee there are all kids of folks there — black, white, kids, older folks, rich, poor, people with different ideas. You can’t put a measure on that. It’s the community right there. People get along. I think that room is a community more than any other place in town.
“That’s important to me. I’ve always underlined the C in YMCA,” he added. “Everything we do here is based on Christian principles. We want to be that place for our community.”
Effusive in his praise of both the board and his staff, Boyd said he’s leaving on good terms.
“I began thinking a couple of years ago, that it was getting pretty near time for someone else to take over, someone who could get above the trees and see everything to keep this thing moving in the direction it needs to go.” he said. “That was the easy part, knowing it was time to step aside. The hard part was writing that letter (of resignation). I’d sit down to write it and I just couldn’t do it. It took forever. And giving the letter to Bill (Brigham) was even harder.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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