Dr. Archibald C. Harte
Archibald Harte first became involved in the YMCA as member of the Student Y’s at Wesleyan University. He served as the Secretary of YMCA’s in Huntsville and Mobile Alabama until 1907. Harte was then called to lead YMCAs in Ceylon, India and Burma, where he began new programs, built facilities and trained local Y leadership for sixteen years. During World War I, Harte supervised a staff of sixty-five in the Y’s Red Triangle Program to provide services to soldiers and prisoners of war. In 1920, Harte was called to Jerusalem to lead the YMCA, which was then housed in a series of larger rented spaces. Harte developed a vision for a permanent Y building and worked tirelessly planning every detail. For years, he cultivated donors who shared his vision of a “Sermon in Stone.” After seven years of construction, the new Jerusalem YMCA was dedicated in 1933 with the words “Here is a spot whose atmosphere is peace, where political and religious jealousies can be forgotten and international unity be fostered and developed.” Harte retired to his home on the shores of Galilee, which he bequeathed to the Jerusalem International YMCA as an international conference facility.
