Camden People - William Partenheimer Jr.

William Penn Partenheimer Jr. was born October 3, 1893 in Camden NJ to William P. and Ada Partenheimer. His family lived in the early 1890s at 650 Federal Street, his father in those days being in the notions and hosiery business in Philadelphia. The elder Partenheimer later earned his living as a traveling salesman. William Partenheimer's first cousins were the Heckenhorn brothers, George Heckenhorn was the first electric trolley car driver in Camden, while William Heckenhorn operated Camden's first Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership.

After attending Drexel Institute and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, William Partenheimer Jr. took a position with the YMCA at the age of 21 as assistant boys' work director. He served in the Army during World War I.

After the war, William Partenheimer Jr. returned to Camden, marrying Miriam Kelchner, the daughter of prominent Camden physician Dr. William Irvin Kelchner, on July 23, 1919 in Camden. At the time of the 1920 census he was living with his parents at 631 State Street. He had by then returned to the YMCA in Camden as boys director, and was named general secretary of the association a few years later. By 1930 William & Miriam Partenheimer Jr. had moved to a home at 148 Wayne Avenue in Haddonfield NJ, and had been blessed with a daughter, Ruth, and a son William P. III. His nephew, David Kelchner, was killed inaction while serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in Germany in February of 1945.

Also active in the Lions Club in Camden, he was named "Lion of the Year" in the spring of 1950. William P. Partenheimer Jr. passed away in May of 1971.

Camden Courier-Post - June 14, 1933

Arts Department to Close year With Children's Party

The Arts Department of the Camden Woman's Club has planned a children's party for tomorrow evening in the clubhouse, 424 Linden Street, as the closing feature of the year's program.

Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes. Children's games will be played and there will be an exchange of "white elephant" gifts.

Mrs. J. Rodney Forrest of Merchantville is chairman of the following committee in charge of the affair; Mrs. Fred B. Hutchinson; Merchantville; Miss Anne Roberts, Miss Florence Trommer, Camden; Mrs. Frank Dumbleton and Mrs. Albert Ware Haddonfield.

At the business meeting to precede the party, Mrs. Roland L. Childrey, retiring president, will install the following new officers: Miss Alice Benkert, Philadelphia, president; Mrs. William P. Partenheimer, Jr., Haddonfield. recording secretary; Mrs. Carl Frey, West Collingswood, and Mrs. Albert M. Bean, Audubon, directors.

Camden Courier-Post - February 1, 1938

"Y” LISTS CAMPAIGN FOR SUPPORT FUNDS
Charles H. Wagner to Manage Drive Scheduled for March 20 Opening

The 1938 annual maintenance campaign of the Camden City Y.M.C.A. has been scheduled by the board of directors to open Sunday morning, March 20, and carry through until March 29, it was announced yesterday by William P. Partenheimer, Jr., general secretary.

Charles H. Wagner, president .of the Camden 'Y' and vice president and general manager of Eavenson & Levering Company, will be general chairman of the campaign. Wagner led the highly successful campaign last year.

At the board of directors' meeting reports showed the following outstanding accomplishments in 1937: Most comprehensive Summer program for men and boys in the history pf the organization; enlargement of health service to the community; increase in the personnel and spirit of boy groups; success of the "Join Your Church at Easter" effort; growth of the interviewing and counseling service for youths of both sexes; notable increase in membership, and Summer camp activities.

Camden Courier-Post - February 7, 1938

142 ATTEND MEETING OF NEGRO Y.M.C.A.
Delegates Hear Pleas for Christian Co-operation to End Conflict

Joint application of the teachings of Christ by the white and Negro races to meet full responsibilities in a changing social and economic order was urged here yesterday at the eighth annual laymen's conference of Colored Y.M.C.A.'s in New Jersey.

Citing the lack of practice of the teachings of Christ as conducive to conflict, Dr. G. Lake Imes, director of public relations of Lincoln University, Lincoln, Pennsylvania, declared that "the social application of Jesus is needed in these times, and not battleships and guns to set the world in order."

Delegates to the conference, held in the Camden Y.M.C.A., Federal Street near Broadway, numbered 142 from Newark, Orange, Montclair, Plainfield, Summit, Princeton, Trenton, Camden, and various counties of the State. The Camden delegation of 31 was the largest in attendance.

Employment problems and their affect upon Negro youth were out lined by W.A. Smith. Jr., director of colored activities for the New Jersey National Youth Administration,

The successful movement for a Negro housing project in Atlantic City, which now affords modern living standards for 374 families, was related by C. V. Cain, manager of the $1,540,000 project.

The afternoon session was devoted· to planning for observance of the 50th anniversary of the Negro Y.M.C.A. History of the association was related by Dr. C. H. Tobias, senior secretary of the national council, and plans for expansion through a $125,000 fund now being raised, were explained by Dr. Leslie Pinkney Hill, principal of the Cheyney Teachers' College. The expansion will benefit New Jersey associations.

A committee of laymen and association secretaries for New Jersey's share in the 50th anniversary was appointed.

Other speakers were G. W. Barnes, temporary secretary of the State Y.M.C.A. headquarters; William P. Partenheimer, general secretary of the Camden Y.M.C.A.; W. R. Valentine, of the Slate Colored Work Committee, A. E. Flournoy, executive secretary of the Hunton Branch Y.M.C.A., Camden, and Irwin Roundtree, chairman of the local entertainment committee.

The Misses Alma and Jessys Jones served as secretaries of the conference. The WPA Orchestra provided dinner music, led by James Wheeler. Partenheimer praised the Hunton branch for the work it accomplished "with so little equipment."

The local welcoming committee comprised Roundtree; H. W. Brown, Elmer Congo, Dr. M. F. Wheatland, J. S. Brooks, Foster Meekins, W. S. Ashley, Charles Whittington, Alfonso Davis, John Robbins, George L. Eggleston and Louis Pugsley.

The 1939 conference will be held in Summit, the first Sunday in February.