NATIONAL CROQUET MUSEUM

Born and raised in Virginia, David McCoy earned a BS in Chemistry from Roanoke College and an MBA from the University of Virginia. After graduation he moved to New York to work for Esso International (now Exxon Mobil). As a senior executive, he retired in 1995 after a career of 31 years involving international trading, marketing, logistics, planning and public affairs.

In 1976, he joined the board of the small, not-for-profit York Theatre Company. Two years later, McCoy became its President and subsequently Chairman and CEO, positions he still holds today. At York’s Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala in New York City in 2013, David was given the prestigious Founder’s Award for his lifetime support of the arts. He is also the past recipient of Americans for the Arts’ Business Volunteer of the Year Award and New York’s Our Town newspapers’ OTTY Award (Our Town Thanks You).

McCoy’s involvement in croquet began in 2003 after he and his wife, Millie, became residents of Palm Beach Polo in Wellington, Florida. He joined the National Croquet Center in 2004, becoming a Lifetime member in 2006. In 2008, the Great Recession struck the Center’s revenue hard. McCoy joined a committee formed to help save the financially strapped Center and was soon made Chairman. With the help of Hall-of-Fame member Ruth Summers and many other volunteers, he began a fundraising campaign to close a summer budget deficit of $120,000 that threatened to end operations at the Center. After this was accomplished, McCoy was elected to the Croquet Foundation of America (CFA) Board in 2009 and volunteered to be General Manager of the Center. In 2010, he was elected president of the CFA.

Soon thereafter, following the death of member and benefactor Diane Blow, her estate insisted on repayment of her past-due note (and mortgage on the Center) of over $660,000. McCoy restructured the debt by soliciting contributions and forming a Land Trust of seven croquet investors that loaned $350,000 to the CFA, secured by a second mortgage. With that and $50,000 of donated funds, he paid off $400,000 of the debt and delayed repayment of the balance until November 2016.

McCoy then reorganized the operations of the Center bringing all activity under the CFA, a not-for-profit organization. This made donations in support of the Center tax deductible and allowed all purchases for the Center to be made tax free, for significant operating savings. He then formed a totally separate, non-profit National Croquet Club, resident at the Center, and grandfathered-in the past National Croquet Center “members.”

Next, McCoy brought in Victoria Albrecht as volunteer Assistant General Manager to focus on building up the charitable programs of the Foundation, operational effectiveness and fundraising. She enhanced and added croquet related charitable activities including the Florida Senior Games, Croquet Special Olympics, youth and college programs and many other community outreach efforts. With this refocused charitable activity, Albrecht was able to obtain a $40,000-per-year property tax exemption in addition to many other operational savings.

The growth of the new National Croquet Club was impressive. Club membership almost tripled from its low in 2009 thanks largely to Hall of Famer Dick Brackett’s Summer Golf Croquet League for the community and special half-price, first-year membership. Overall operating revenues of the Center climbed from $375,000 to $550,000 at the end of 2013.

McCoy is quick to acknowledge that he would never have been able to achieve the turnaround of the Center without the dedicated assistance and advice of scores of people who consulted, volunteered hours of their time or provided generous financial support. He particularly credits the dedication of the staff, the massive volunteer help of National Croquet Club members, the financial generosity of CFA Board members and the Land Trust participants, the donations of scores of individuals who responded to special appeals for help at critical times, the cooperation and assistance of the USCA and the extraordinary dedication of his volunteer Assistant General Manager, Victoria Albrecht.

Throughout this period, McCoy worked on his croquet game, participating in as many as 25 tournaments in one year and dropping his handicap to a minus one. His tournament achievements include a minimum of 15 first places and 20 second places, including an impressive win at the 2012 USCA National Masters Championship. With a new croquet court at his summer home in Summit, New York, McCoy hopes to escape the phone and computer long enough to further improve his skills. He is truly a first class, extraordinarily committed ambassador of croquet, most worthy of induction into the US Croquet Hall of Fame in 2014.