Barry Kroll Retires But Doesn't Slow Down

Barry Kroll's first experience with the YMCA was not the stuff that dreams are made of.

"I was walking home and some older kids came out of the YMCA and beat me up," said Kroll, who estimated his age at 14 at the time. "When I got home, I told my mom what had happened, and she said, 'Go back to the Y and tell them.' So I went back, and they put me to work handing out towels to the swim team."

From handing out towels, Kroll became a lifeguard at his local YMCA in Chicago. He continued working for the YMCA throughout high school and college and into his professional life, eventually becoming Vice President of Operations at the YMCA in Oakland, Calif., and the CEO of the Madison Area YMCA. In fact, Kroll said, "Every paycheck I've ever gotten has been from the YMCA."

Barry isn't the only member of his family involved with the YMCA, either. He met his wife Judy when they were both working for the same YMCA in San Francisco in 1980, and their daughter Lesley spent this past summer as a counselor at YMCA summer camp before starting college in Baltimore on Aug. 29.

While Kroll's wife Judy described the house as "very peaceful" with just the two of them, Barry said, "When the kids are gone you look at each other and say, 'Now what do we talk about?' But you quickly fill that gap."

These days the Krolls are filling that gap with plays, chores ("My 'Honey, Do' list is growing all the time," Kroll said), but most of all with community service and volunteering. Barry Kroll has been a long-standing active member of the Rotary Club of Madison, and he said retirement now allows him to do more with that club.

"We just had a bunch of Japanese exchange students here for three weeks," Kroll said.

The students, who were part of a Rotary exchange, stayed in Kroll's home and went with him to the State Fair, the Museum of Natural History and the Statue of Liberty, among other sight-seeing destinations.

Kroll also took tickets at Touch-A-Truck, the fundraiser for the Madison Public Library held on Aug. 7, and can be seen at the Rotary Family Fun Festival in Florham Park, coming up Sept. 9 through Sept. 12 at the lot adjacent to the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center off of Park Avenue. The festival, co-sponsored by the Jets, Atlantic Health and the Rotary Clubs of Madison and Florham Park, is Kroll's biggest project at the moment.

"It gets bigger by the day," Kroll said, shaking his head. He could almost be exaggerating, until he talks about needing FAA approval for a Ferris wheel, "because of the airport," Kroll said, referring to Morristown Municipal Airport less than two miles from the lot.

"I feel like I need to go back to work to rest," Kroll said with a laugh.