William Mahon '49 earned a reputation as an innovative and socially conscious physical education teacher and director of health, physical education and recreation during more than three decades in the field. A native of Martindale, N.Y., Mahon earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from SUNY Cortland and a master's degree in physical education from Springfield College.
While at Cortland, Mahon was a three-year starter on the soccer squad and played baseball for a season. He was the sportswriter for The Hilltop Press, a student government representative, a Newman Club member and vice president of Beta Phi Epsilon fraternity.
He began his professional career in 1949 teaching physical education to children with disabilities at the Wassaic (N.Y.) State School. During the summer, he directed the Beekman Recreation Center in Poughquag. In 1953, he became a physical education teacher and coach at Easton (Md.) Junior-Senior High School. He coached baseball, soccer and led the basketball team to the state finals. He was the Easton Jaycees "Man of the Year" in 1953 and that summer, as director of the Easton playgrounds, battled public opposition to integrate the recreational program there.
Mahon became a physical education teacher, coach and department chair at Garden City (N.Y.) Schools from 1956-59. He then directed the health, physical education and recreation program at Harborfields High School in Greenlawn, N.Y., until 1968 and held the same position with Bay Shore (N.Y.) Schools until his retirement in 1984. Among his many "firsts," Mahon developed the first summer recreation program for children with disabilities in Huntington Township in 1961 and, for those efforts, received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from Suffolk County. He initiated, designed and ran the first medical symposium for Suffolk County Schools. Mahon designed play days for "exceptional children" throughout Suffolk County and watched the program grow from three to 35 schools.
Under his leadership, Bay Shore was the first Suffolk County high school to provide girls athletic competition in soccer. He was the county soccer chair for seven years. He represented Bay Shore Schools in a successful legal challenge of their Title IX initiatives for girls' sports.
As the summer recreation program director at the Bay Shore Schools between 1968-84, Mahon created the first summer recreation program that provided busing to and from the schools, including a ferry to Fire Island for swimming.
For nine years, Mahon was New York State legislative chair for the New York State Council of Administrators of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He helped to write the Critical Health Bill and, in 1967, successfully lobbied passage of the Speno-Bridges Bill, which provided a mandate for teaching health at the junior and senior high levels in New York State.
Mahon devoted 28 years of service to the Kiwanis International, including serving as past president of the Bay Shore and Northport clubs and as New York State lieutenant governor representing Suffolk County. He was the Northport Kiwanis' Man of the Year in 1986-87. He is also a past president of the Suffolk County Zone of the New York State Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
Mahon and his late wife, Patricia, have four children: Mary, Scott, Terry and Deirdre.
UPDATE: Mahon passed away on July 7, 2019 at the age of 93.
