At a commemoration held on Friday, July 16th, Camp Director Michael Humes dedicated the new pavilion to his father, Earl B. Humes, who founded Camp Regis with his wife Pauline in 1946.
The dedication to Earl Humes – who died in 1982 – was a surprise from Michael to his mother. Several people in addition to Michael and Pauline shared memories of Earl Humes with staff, campers, and some parents who had arrived early for parents’ visiting weekend.
Earl Humes was described as large in stature but kind-hearted – the type of person who often went out of his way to help others. George Bredig, a former camper and now the head counselor for Applejack Camp, spoke of how Earl influenced and change him. Frank Long, the head chef who has worked for the camp for over 25 years, said he wouldn’t be here today had it not been for Earl’s belief in him. Roland Joffee, the father of Program Director Bobbie Joffee, and a Camp Regis counselor from 1947, also spoke of the influence Earl and Camp Regis had on his life.
Pauline told of the early years at Camp Regis and the reasons for its founding. Earl was Dean of Students at City College of New York and Pauline was also working in education when they decided to establish the camp. Most private children’s camps at that time were either all Catholic, all Protestant, or all Jewish, Pauline explained at the dedication. At the end of World War II, she and Earl felt it was particularly important for the children of our country to get to know and be a part of a wider spectrum of people. So they sought to enroll not only children from varied religious backgrounds but also of different nationalities.
Earl and Pauline visited various embassies to recruit campers for the first season. The campers that year included two little contessas from Italy and a boy who had been held in the concentration camps and kept alive by barley water.
Early staff members, Pauline also mentioned, included a nurse from France who had saved 5,000 children in the war and “had the bullet holes to prove it,” and a teacher from Bermuda who, Pauline said, was one of the first black camp counselors in the United States.
That tradition in which Camp Regis was founded has been carried on, Pauline said. In fact, the campers and staff that came to camp turned out to be even more diverse than she and Earl had envisioned. According to Pauline, when the first Muslim and Buddhist campers arrived at the camp, Earl said: “I guess we set our sights too low.”
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