New CEO, DeAngelo Earns YMCA of Greenwich Helm

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by Anne W. Semmes
Sentinel Features Writer

Bob DeAngelo
Bob DeAngelo

Greenwich’s Bob DeAngelo is to the community manner born. He’s third generation Greenwich. He comes from an “Italian immigrant family,” he says, and had “a fabulous upbringing” with his family. “We summered on Tod’s Point and on Island Beach. We were community involved.”

His grandparents helped build the Boy’s and Girl’s Club on Horseneck Lane that Bob would frequent as a kid, then oversee for 16 years as executive director. As a kid Bob attended the YM’s summer camp and hung out at the YM pool while his member dad Sal DeAngelo made a name for himself as a racquetball player at the YM where the game originated.

“These are cherished agencies that shaped me the way I am today,” Bob says, so it is with considerable pride that he takes over as CEO of the YMCA on August 15.

Bob has the necessary credentials: fundraising for the Boys and Girls Club – $16 million to rebuild what his grandparents had helped build; marketing from an earlier gig with Texas Instruments; piloting for the U.S. Navy, and innovative mentoring with public school kids.

But what really primed Bob to say yes to the CEO job came out of an invitation to give this year’s commencement speech at Greenwich High School that Bob looks back on as “the greatest moment” in his life. He was delivering a message to the graduates from his heart that they should live their life “trying to help someone within arm’s reach.”

So, when the offer came very recently from the YMCA he thought to himself, he says, “I am going to be able to help a lot of people at arm’s reach. I want to live this.”

Bob admits to be on a learning curve with his new enterprise. “I have a lot to learn,” he says, “and I’m very excited to meet the Y staff and board members to forge a stronger community.”

He’s drawn by the varied offerings of the YM. “There are a lot of people doing a lot of different things,” he says, such as, every Tuesday night Bob mentors a group wanting to join the military. For Bob, the YM offers “more motion, more people, more community.” “If you know more people you can get more people involved in your mission.”

“There are a lot of great ideas to get the YM involved in the community,” he says, and he points outs, “The Greenwich YM is literally in the center of town.” He has a term for what he values and desires to do in building the YM community. He calls it “community weave.”

Next year, he’ll be out to engage the wider community in the YM’s Centennial to be held under his watch just as was the Boys and Girls Club Centennial. “I had so much fun,” he recalls, “It was such a source of pride.”

With the demands of being the CEO of the largest community-based membership organization in Greenwich, Bob may find his greatest challenge finding the time to personally mentor his members. A few months ago he was approached by a group of teenagers he knew well wanting his help to train them for a “grueling obstacle race”– the “Spartan Sprint” that took place in Tuxedo Ridge, New York in early June.

“I said yes if they promised to train pretty hard,” Bob says. He gave up his weekends to train with and run with his four teen members, “Team Khan.” “We did the race on Bear Mountain where you climb up the ski mountain four times,” he says. “There was closeness and pride and believing in them and championing them. This is more of what I want to do at the YM.”

Bob won’t be sailing the YM ship exactly solo – his wife Jan will be putting her oar in. “My wife Jan has always given me super advice on helping kids,” he says. “She will be helping me with the new challenge at the YMCA and the goal of forging stronger community there and bringing out the best in youth and families.”

It seems the DeAngelos have done some pretty fine mentoring of their own kids. Before Bob takes over as CEO he and Jan are heading out to San Diego to see their 19-year old son Scott make his touch down in the Pacific Ocean from a cross country bike trip, (something that Bob has done). “Scott is doing the Bike & Build trip – having stopped along the way for some building for Habitat for Humanity.” Scott’s older sister Annie, 25, a NOLS instructor out west managed to drive two days to surprise Scott and riders en route having set up a roadside “watermelon and homemade muffin” stand. Daughter Julia, 21, has been volunteering in Boston for “Daily Table,” a nonprofit helping struggling families “eat better food and foster a healthier lifestyle,” but she’s leaving soon for Peru on a FOCUS Christian mission trip.

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