University YMCA · 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign, IL 61820
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Steve Shoemaker, a Presbyterian minister who grew up in Urbana, led the University YMCA as executive director from 1999 to 2008, after 18 years as pastor of McKinley Presbyterian Church and nearly as many on the Y's Friday Forum committee. He opened the Y to interfaith work after Sept. 11, 2001, saw Dump & Run grow into one of the largest sales in town, and led the "Legacy of Leadership" campaign that began the building's renewal. He was also a poet and, for 14 years, the host of WILL's "Keepin' the Faith."
Steven Robert Shoemaker was born at Carle Hospital in Urbana on Dec. 19, 1942, and grew up there.12 At Urbana High School he played basketball and trombone, and he met Nadja, his wife of 51 years.13 He stood six feet eight inches tall.23
He was raised a religious conservative. At Wheaton College, where he took a bachelor's degree in psychology, he became a liberal, in part because the conservative churches were ignoring the civil rights movement.2 He earned the Master of Divinity and the Master of Sacred Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1969, and a Ph.D. in religion at Duke University in 1979.14 In North Carolina he was pastor of the Pittsboro and Mount Vernon Springs Presbyterian churches and Presbyterian campus pastor at North Carolina State University.14
In 1981 he came home to Champaign as pastor of McKinley Presbyterian Church and director of the McKinley Foundation, the Presbyterian campus ministry. He held both posts for 18 years.25 McKinley housed a men's emergency shelter, served by more than 250 student volunteers a year, and gave sanctuary to Central American refugees.5 He welcomed Muslim students to hold their Friday prayers in the church, performed holy unions for gay and lesbian couples, and chaired Champaign's task force on the homeless.615 He sat on the boards of the United Way and the local ACLU and worked with the Dr. Martin Luther King Committee.14
In 1999 he began hosting "Keepin' the Faith," a Sunday call-in program on religion and ethics on WILL-AM 580, as a volunteer. He kept it up for 14 years, until 2013.73 In November 2002, while running the Y, he won a two-year term on the Champaign County Board as a Democrat from District 7, the campus district.89 He wrote poems, articles and reviews for the Christian Century and other journals and was nominated for Illinois Poet Laureate in 2003.14
After retiring from the Y in 2008 he went on with the radio program, served Urbana Rotary as its president in 2013, and wrote poems, often at three or four in the morning on his phone.110 He was found to have pancreatic cancer late in 2015. His first book, A Sin A Week, a book of light verse, was published in Mahomet in June 2016.113 He died at home on the night of Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, at 73.13 His memorial service was held at First Presbyterian Church of Urbana on Oct. 15, and the family asked that gifts go to the University YMCA.1 He was survived by Nadja, two children and two grandchildren.1 The Illinois Senate passed a resolution in his memory.4
Shoemaker knew the Y long before he ran it. From about 1982 he sat on the Friday Forum committee as McKinley's representative; McKinley was one of the forum's main co-sponsors.512 He spoke at the forum himself, on "The Practice and Presence of Christianity at the U of I" in March 1993.13 In 1991 the Y gave him its J. Frederick Miller Award for distinguished volunteer service.514
In June 1999 the Y announced that he would succeed John E. Jordan, who retired at the end of June after nearly ten years.5 He began as executive director on Aug. 1, 1999.152 He told the News-Gazette that he had listed his controversial stands for the Board of Governors before it chose him: he did not pledge allegiance to the flag, he was pro-choice, he performed holy unions for gay and lesbian couples, and he backed the graduate students' union. "They took me anyway," he said.16 He reminded the paper that "there is a C in YMCA." He meant to keep raising money to make the building accessible and to carry on Jordan's lecture series on the arts, science and religion.16 The Y held an open house to welcome him on Sept. 24.17
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he offered the Y to local Muslims who were uneasy about gathering at the mosque.6 That November, when the white supremacist Matt Hale spoke at the Champaign library, he spoke at a "Stop the Hate" vigil and festival at the Y with the YWCA's director, Naomi Jakobsson.18 As the Iraq war began in March 2003, he organized an interfaith service of prayer for Jews, Muslims and Christians.19 In 2006 the Inter-Cultural Friendship Foundation honored him for his interfaith work.20 As director he gave Friday Forums on "Barriers to a Culture of Peace" (2001), "Visions of Conscience from Stories Old and New" (2005) and "Reflections on Interfaith Relations Locally" (2007).211222
Under Shoemaker the Y's own programs were the Friday Forum, Know Your University, Communiversity and the Bailey Scholarship, along with the Reel World film series and the student programs.23 He taught Communiversity classes himself, among them "C.S. Lewis: Christianity & Imagination" in 2007–08.2425 The Y's garage sale became Dump & Run in 2002 and moved to the Stock Pavilion in 2004, when he called it "probably the biggest sale in town."26 He took its volunteers out for ice cream.3
His years brought turnover too. At a Board of Governors retreat in November 2002 the Y named its worries: a gap between the student programs and the board, students' weak ties to the Y, the need for an annual fund drive, and a Friday Forum that might need redirection. The whole program staff changed in the spring of 2003.27 He hired Becca Guyette as program director that year, sitting her down at Know Your University on the day she came to apply, and in 2007 he hired Kasey Umland.2825 In February 2006 the Y held its first Student Activist Conference.29
A 2005 study by BLDD Architects found the 1937 building "strong and sound" but in need of major renovation. Shoemaker set out the needs in the next annual report: a roof, sprinklers, heating and cooling, perhaps an elevator, and a greener building.30 The "A Legacy of Leadership" campaign began with planning in the fall of 2006, opened in January 2007 with $300,000 in lead gifts, passed its $1 million goal in November 2007 and closed in January 2008, having raised more than $1.1 million.2531 The board chair, Willard Broom, gave Shoemaker the credit: he "reached out to friends of the Y and made our needs clear and compelling."25 Together with later gifts, the money paid for the elevator, boiler and roof of the 2010 renovation.31
His retirement was planned. At its October 2007 retreat the Board of Governors discussed what the next director would need, and a search committee chaired by A. G. "Tony" Endress advertised nationally.25 Faculty, students and friends of the Y celebrated his nine years at a retirement party in Latzer Hall on April 17, 2008.2532 He retired officially on Aug. 20, 2008, "as I go willingly out to pasture," he wrote.25 The first search did not produce a director, and Willard Broom served as interim executive director until Mike Doyle began in February 2009.2533 Shoemaker stayed on the Know Your University committee.34
On taking the job, in 1999: "I think a society is judged by how it takes care of the poorest people."2 On the board that chose him despite his stands: "They took me anyway." And on the Y's roots: "Remember there is a C in YMCA."16
On the forum, in 2005: "We're always concerned about values—morality, ethics and social, political, environmental issues."12
On J. Frederick Miller, the Y's general secretary from 1958 to 1967, for whom his 1991 award was named, at Miller's death in 2005: "The University Y today continues because of the good work of J. Frederick Miller."14
In his first annual report letter, 2006: "The University YMCA: a great history, great people, great plans... and a great future!"30
Looking back in 2016 on the Y's welcome to Muslims after Sept. 11: "There's so much fear and prejudice that has to be overcome."6
When he came to the Y in 1999, his colleague Tom Seals said, "He doesn't promote himself, he's always pushing other people into the limelight," and the Rev. Jack Good called him "a role model on what it means to be a pastor in a University area."2
Becca Guyette, whom he hired as program director, remembered applying in 2003. A "six foot eight giant" at the front desk said he would be her boss and sat her down at Know Your University to watch the program she would run.28
Kasey Umland, whom he hired in 2007 and who later became the Y's associate director, remembered him taking Dump & Run's volunteers out for ice cream. "He just was, I think, a person who really loved life."3
Ann Rasmus opened the Friday Forum of Oct. 14, 2016, with a moment of silence: "we lost an incredible leader and friend of the University YMCA."35 Mike Doyle, the Y's executive director, wrote that he had helped "create and grow Dump & Run from a small fundraising garage sale."36
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