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Notes:
Despite growing up in an era when Japanese-Americans faced the challenges of intense discrimination, Wada grew to become a regional and national leader for humanitarian causes. He was an editor of the University of California at Berkeley newspaper in 1940, but was unable to secure employment as a journalist after college. He was drafted into the Army’s Military Intelligence Service in 1941. After he left the Army, he took his first job with the YMCA at the University of California’s Student YMCA in 1946. He went on to program director positions in the San Francisco YMCA, and became the executive director of the Buchanan Street Y after a short tenure with the California Youth Authority. While working in San Francisco, Wada established a bridge between Japanese-American and African-American youth. In retirement, Wada was appointed to the Board of Regents for the University of California, the first Asian regent in the board’s 109-year history.
