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(By LARRY DORMAN, New York Times - August 8, 2009) EAST CANTON, Ohio — After Battling Racism, Veteran Found Peace on His Golf Course.. Every corner of the modest two-story frame clubhouse he owns and operates, every tee and green of Clearview Golf Club, the 18-hole course he designed and built, bears the imprint of Bill Powell. Sown 63 years ago in an act of defiance, nurtured by the sheer force of will of the man whose vision gave it birth, the club stands as a monument to a golf giant who has battled racism in relative obscurity most of his life.

(Photo Credit: David Maxwell for The New York Times) His wife, Marcella, second from left, and his children worked with Powell, second from right.

On Wednesday in Minneapolis, on the eve of the P.G.A. Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club, a national spotlight will illuminate Powell’s many life achievements when he receives the P.G.A. Distinguished Service Award, the P.G.A. of America’s highest honor.

The great-grandson of Alabama slaves, Powell will be there to accept it. He is 92, his once-imposing frame slightly bent by time and by a stroke a decade ago. His wide shoulders and thick arms are reminders of the fine athlete he was. His speech survived, as did a powerful presence that emanates from deep-set eyes that smolder or sparkle, depending on the topic.

“I was denied the rights accorded me in the G.I. Bill,” he said, his eyes widening and his anger rising. “I was denied this right. Here’s a guy of color that was captain and coach of his golf team in high school, captain of his football team, and when I come and try back to get a loan, they tell me, ‘Bill, go there and get a loan.’ ”

No local banks would grant a loan to Powell, who grew up in Minerva — a small town about 20 miles east of Canton — where he caddied from the age of 9. In an era when blacks could not stand in line with whites to apply for a job, when the Army was segregated, Powell was reminded of the deep societal differences between England and Scotland, where he had been stationed, and Ohio.

It hardened his resolve, as Powell said, “I had just left a country where I was treated like a human being, so how was I supposed to be satisfied to be treated like dirt?”

At times Bill Powell wondered if what he was doing was worth the trouble. But quitting never occurred to him. “As soon as someone told him he couldn’t do something, that was when you knew he could,” Renee Powell said.

The Clearview Golf Club is on the National Register of Historic Places. He did much of the heavy work himself, clearing brush, pulling out fence posts and hauling away stones in a wheelbarrow. He seeded the fairways by hand, sometimes helped by Marcella, who died in June 1996 after 56 years of marriage.

Standing in the afternoon shade of a massive oak on a hill near the first tee last week, his daughter Renee Powell smiled, as she pointed down the first fairway of the course, which is one of just 15 on the National Register of Historic Places.

“He and my mother planted most of the trees you see there bordering the first hole,” she said. “When you think about what he was able to accomplish here, with everything that was arrayed against him, it really is quite amazing...MORE...”

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