Bill Conlon
2018 Inducted as Contributor
Palo Alto Elks Lodge

Bill was recruited to join the board of the NCHA by Roy Bukstein in 1999 and two years later he was elected to succeed Cherylann Mendonca as President.  

At the peak of the dot com era on July 7, 2000, Bill obtained the norcalhandball.org domain name.  Back then web sites were exotic, so to save money he hosted the site on his wife’s company’s server using a 128 kbps ISDN line in her office.  Over the years, the site moved the server to high speed hosting providers, all paid for by Bill and his wife Judith until Mike Linnik took over at the end of 2016.  Bill designed and coded the web application and database and managed the domain, email, web, and database servers.  The old site was advanced for its time with a dynamic front end that delivered content and a back-end that enabled some content management, as well as administrative functions for membership lists, booster status,  email and snail mail communications, and management of the online tournament calendar and list of handball courts.  Eventually, Bill expanded the database to include the Hall-of-Fame, and worked with Geoff Capell to add each inductee.  

In 2001, Bill was asked to become publisher of the Scoop, involving the page layout, proof-reading of articles,  printing, and with Roy Bukstein’s help, pasting on the address labels and stamps to send them through the mail.  Electronic publishing was still in the future, but Bill also produced a pdf version that was available on line after the print edition had been delivered.  Bill published some 26 issues through the end of 2013, working with a range of editors, including Tom Sove, Bob Carel, Jay Grenfell, and Mike Linnik, and occasionally stepping in as editor himself.

During his four-year tenure as President, the NCHA Board met six times a year in locations from Watsonville to Sacramento, to coordinate the Regional and Hall of Fame Tournaments, arrange the Bay Counties playoffs and play days, and coordinate with USHA, including hosting the Womens’ Open and supporting the 4-wall nationals.  Bill was aided by the advent of electronic communications that enabled a superb board to work together efficiently.  After being succeeded as President in 2005 by Roy Bukstein, Bill has continued to be involved as a board member and volunteer at NCHA events.

Bill, welcome to the NorCal Hall-of-Fame!