At the Awards Dinner held on February 8th at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas, the longtime Executive Manager of the Detroit Athletic Club was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his leadership and instrumental role behind the dramatic transformation of the DAC into one of the most prominent private city clubs in the country.

In addition to presentations at their individual clubs that will be held throughout the coming year, the 2019 Excellence in Club Management winners, along with honorees from previous years and members, past and present, of the ECM selection committee, were recognized at an Awards Dinner that was held at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas on Saturday, February 8, in conjunction with the 2020 World Conference of the Club Management Association of America. 

This year’s Awards Dinner was sponsored by Denehy Club Thinking Partners, ForeTees LLC, IZON Golf, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, and Preferred Club.

A full report on the Awards Dinner will appear in the March issue of Club + Resort Business, and detailed profiles of all of the ECM award winners will be published in C+RB throughout 2020.

The Excellence in Club Management Awards were founded by the McMahon Group in 1997 and have been co-sponsored by Club + Resort Business since 2005 and the National Club Association since 2018.

Winner
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Ted Gillary, CCM, CCE, ECM,
Executive Manager, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, Mich. 

It wasn’t all that long ago that the death knell was being sounded for city clubs in all locations, and particularly ones in cities like Detroit that were shaken to their core by America’s shift from an industrial base to a service-heavy economy.

But few clubs, or club managers, have done more to dispel the thought that city clubs are dead than the Detroit Athletic Club (DAC) under the leadership of Ted Gillary as its Executive Manager for the past 25 years.

In just one of many accolades Gillary has received over the years for how he has helped to transform the DAC and its iconic downtown building into a showpiece for not only Detroit, but also the club industry, he was praised for “[playing] an instrumental role in the DAC’s ongoing prominence among private clubs around the country,” when he was honored as Executive of the Year by the Detroit Executives Association in 2017.

“During Ted’s tenure, the DAC renewed a commitment to its downtown location by investing substantially in the clubhouse and property, and committed to guiding the club on a quality-improvement path through performance-excellence strategies and employee-engagement practices,” that recognition added.

Gillary, an Excellence in Club Management honoree in 1999, has been succeeded as DAC Executive Manager, through a transition that took effect February 1, 2020, by Charles Johnson, CCM, who earned ECM “Rising Star” recognition in 2016.

Details about many of the notable accomplishments and initiatives executed at the DAC under Gillary’s leadership and covered by C+RB through his years as Executive Manager can be viewed here.