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Note: William Mason Danner was the retired General Secretary of the American Mission to Lepers. Cousin Ralph, Have been able to put together a few more pieces of my grandfather's career. William Mason DANNER, Sr. Before 1890: State Secretary, Iowa YMCA (Davenport newspaper) 1892: Head of YMCA, Louisville, Kentucky 1896: Head of YMCA, Denver, Colorado. 1910: Becomes associated with Leprosy Mission (see below) 1911-1937: Secretary of American Leprosy Missions 1912: Living in Cambridge, Massachusets. (both sons at Harvard) 1916: Testifies before Congress (see below) Between at least 1917 & 1943: Living in Montclair, New Jersey His wife, Lois Rutledge Danner, died in 1943. I recall he later remarried and moved to Washington, DC., where he died in 1952. Perhaps my cousin Lois Anne can provide more details. I will send you separately a rather interesting article my aunt Lois Stender wrote for the Leprosy Mission newsletter. Below is the Danner section of the ALM web site that gives further details. A fuller account of the Carville relationship can be found at: http://fortyandeight.org/thestar/v54i3p10.htm (This has my grandfather's name wrong the first time -- William H. Danner -- but the name is given in full later in the piece.) Cousin Peter http://www.ilep.org.uk/ilep_member_alm.htm American Leprosy Missions, ALM History In 1906, the United Kingdom's �Mission to Lepers� in India (later known as The Leprosy Mission) sent Son Wellesley Bailey to the United States to form an American Committee. William Danner became associated with the American Committee in 1910. He was appointed as its first full-time secretary in 1911, serving for 26 years. On September 25, 1917, the American Committee became an autonomous body - the American Mission to Lepers. In 1950, the board of directors changed the agency's title to American Leprosy Missions, (ALM), and officially classified it as a tax-free charitable foundation, operating as a Christian medical mission. In ALM's early years, Danner established the Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Centre in Carville, Louisiana, as a division of the U.S. Public Health Service. As early as 1914, the American Committee and its supporters had urged the U.S. Congress to establish a national leprosarium. In 1916, Danner gave testimony at the 64th Congress hearings of the committee on public health to assess the need for a national leprosarium. The bill in favor of the leprosarium was passed on January 25, 1917. Danner was authorized by the U.S. Surgeon General to purchase the Louisiana State leprosy colony in Carville. In early 2000, the National Hansen's Disease Program clinical services moved from the Carville facilities to Summit Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During his tenure as secretary, Danner established local leprosy committees in China, Japan, the Philippines, France and South America. Three training centers, the Schieffelin Centre in Karigiri, India, ALERT in Addis -Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Hospital Lauro de Souza Lima in Bauru, Brazil, were also later co-established by ALM. ALM was elected as a member of ILEP in 1975. New York Times, November 15, 1952 WASHINGTON Nov. 14 -- William Mason Danner, who as general secretary of American Leprosy Missions, Inc., was credited with much of the progress in the last half century in fighting leprosy as a disease and in aiding its victims, died here today at the age of 89. Mr. Danner attended Iowa State College and had engaged in Young Men Christian Association work in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky and Colorado before he joined the Mission to Lepers, London, in 1911. this organization subsequently was known as the American Mission to Lepers and later the American Leprosy Mission, Inc., of 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. Survivors include Mr. Danner�s widow, Laura; a son, Paul Rutledge Danner of Bermuda; a daughter, Mrs. Charles A. Stender of St. Louis; a brother and a sister. His first wife, Mrs. Lois Rutledge Danner, who had been active with him in welfare work for lepers, died in 1943. Mr. Danner was widely acclaimed for having been primarily responsible for the establishment of the Federal Leprosarium in Carville, La., now called the United States Public Health Hospital. As the result of his campaign for a Federal hospital for leprosy victims, a bill was introduced in Congress is 1916 to create such an institution. Upon the bill�s passage, Mr. Danner was appointed on a national committee to select the site for the hospital. In 1921 the old State Lepers Asylum at Carville was transformed into the national leprosarium. Mr. Danner made world tours of leprosaria in 1918 and in 1925-6, studying different methods of treatment and conferring with leprosy experts and government officials with the view of bettering conditions of the disease�s victims everywhere. While in China in 1926, he had a major role in the formation of the Chinese Mission to Lepers, an organization of Chinese Christians, that established a leprosarium in Shanghai and sent money to leprosy colonies throughout China. During his tenure as general secretary of the American Leprosy Mission, Inc., from 1911 to 1937, Mr. Danner saw it grow from a small group that raised $15,000 in his first year to a national organization with five branch offices sending $500,000 annually to leprosy colonies all over the world to aid Protestant medical missionaries treat the disease. [From The Denver Daily News, May 22, 1908] Two hundred invitations were issued to the large and beautifully arranged reception given last evening by Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Danner and their sons, W. M. Danner, Jr., and Paul Danner, at the Woman's club. It was a farewell entertainment, as the family will leave this evening for the East. The clubhouse was attractively decorated with yellow and red blossoms. In the receiving line were Mr. and Mrs. Danner, Paul Danner, William Danner, Jr., Governor and Mrs. H. A. Buchtel and Dr. and Mrs. R. F. Coyle. Mr. Danner goes to Battle Creek, Mich., to accept a position. He has a host of friends in this city, where he has resided for a number of years. He was a prominent worker in the Y. M. C. A. and was at the Denver university. Peter Kolb Danner
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