Bill Yelverton '63 is a retired chief of clinical services from the Binghamton Psychiatric Center. Before his retirement in 1996, Yelverton led a multi-disciplinary staff of more than 100 mental health professionals in providing treatment and rehabilitation services to over 300 clients in a four-county area. "My career as a psychiatric center administrator drew upon many of the principles associated with teammanship and fair play I experienced while a student-athlete at SUNY Cortland," said Yelverton.
An exceptional athlete while at Cortland, Yelverton earned 11 letters in four sports - football, indoor track, outdoor track and gymnastics. In football, he was twice selected All-ECAC (weekly honors) as a running back and co-captained the team during his senior year. After graduation, he was an Empire Football League All-Conference cornerback with the semi-pro Triple Cities Jets of Binghamton, N.Y. In track (indoor and outdoor), Yelverton again co-captained the team and shattered Cortland's pole vault record as a freshman and later set the New York State mark. In his final year, the vaulting poles used in the event changed from rigid steel to flexible fiberglass. Yelverton, as a collegiate senior, authored and published an article on the ‘conversion experience from a vaulter’s perspective' in the National Publication, “Scholastic Coach Magazine”. Yelverton was also active in the Dance Club, the Newman Club and with fraternity life at Cortland. Yelverton earned his B.S. in physical education in 1963.
The Johnson City, N.Y., native taught and coached in the Binghamton area while earning his master's degree in counseling from SUNY Oneonta. From 1967 to 1970, he developed a program for mentally ill adolescent patients while working at the Jewish Community Center of Broome County. In 1970, he joined the staff of the Binghamton Psychiatric Center as a senior recreation therapist and, by 1975, rose to the position of chief of Mental Health Treatment Services.
During the 1970's, Yelverton ‘moonlighted’ as an adjunct professor in the SUNY Cortland Recreation Department at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has written extensively in the field of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and instituted field work programs at his facility with a number of colleges and universities. In 1974, Yelverton was elected chairman of the New York State Therapeutic Recreation Directors Association and in 1980, he was named head of the NYS Office of Mental Health Directors of Psychiatric Rehabilitation.
He and his wife, Helene, have two sons: Dr. William and Thomas. Interestingly, Yelverton’s son Tom became NYS’s first 16' high school pole vaulter in 1980, held the state record for 19 years and his son Kris (Yelverton’s grandson), was one of NYS’s best high school vaulters and third in an inter-generational line of outstanding pole vaulters.
