The Executive Club of the Princeton Family YMCA will host its 50th annual dinner on Thursday, Oct. 11, with a reception starting at 6 a.m., followed by dinner at 7:15 p.m. at the Springdale Golf Club in Princeton.
The Executive Club of the Princeton Family YMCA was founded in 1961 when local civic, business and community leaders determined that a forum was needed to promote fellowship and encourage financial support for the YMCA.
In honor of this milestone year, the event will recognize two of the Executive Club’s founders — A.C. Reeves Hicks and Herb W. Hobler. Both men are longtime Princeton residents and each has a dynamic history of service to the region in a variety of roles.
Mr. Hicks, a retired attorney, has provided leadership and active participation for organizations such as the Council of Community Services, where he served as director and president. He also was president of the Princeton YMCA, a trustee and chairman of the Princeton YMCA-YWCA, president of the Princeton Bar Association, chairman and trustee of the Chamber of Commerce of the Princeton Area on two separate occasions, trustee and vice chairman of the Princeton Youth Fund, trustee of Dorothea Van Dyke McLane Association, trustee of MSM Regional Planning Council, trustee of the Hun School of Princeton, president and director of the Arts Council of Princeton, and a director of the Rotary Club of Princeton.
In 1980, Mr. Hicks received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce and in 1987 he received a citation from the Princeton Area Council of Community Services for Distinguished Volunteer Leadership and in 2008 he received the Princeton YMCA’s inaugural Centennial Award.
Mr. Hobler is the founder and former owner of WHWH radio and trustee and supporter of the American Boychoir School. He is a veteran and Princeton University alum.
He founded a popular activity at the YMCA for teenagers in the 1960s and 1970s called Youth Speaks Up. It offered teenagers from 27 high schools in Central New Jersey the opportunity to operate their own weekly radio program on WHWH. The program won several national and state awards.
More recently, he built the Spirit of Princeton Committee for the Princeton Area Community Foundation and was the recipient of their 16th annual Leslie “Bud” Vivian Award for Community Service in 2012.
Proceeds from the evening are used to support the YMCA’s financial assistance program, which benefits local children and families in need and ensures that YMCA programs are available to all.
For ticket information, call 609-497-9622, extension 210 or visit the website www.princetonymca.org.

