2010 Inductees

Joe Latorre

JoAnn Lee

Joe Latorre and JoAnn Lee were named the 2010 inductees into the St. Andrew’s Parks and Playground Hall of Fame at the agency’s annual awards dinner.

The Hall of Fame was established by the St. Andrew’s Parks and Playground Commission in 2006 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding and lasting contributions to the community via St. Andrew’s Parks and Playground in various ways.

Latorre was involved with St. Andrew’s Parks and Playground for nearly 60 years. As a youth growing up in West Ashley, he participated in a variety of sports and activities at St. Andrew’s, including baseball, football, boxing and horseshoes.

Latorre began coaching at St. Andrew’s in 1964, volunteering his time year-round to tutor and mentor children playing in the agency athletic programs. Latorre earned a reputation as a tireless fundraiser for money to take his players on out of town trips, traveling as far as Atlanta to take his teams to a Braves game.

For his dedication to area children, Latorre was honored in 1973 by the West Ashley Optimist Club with the prestigious Friend of Youth Award. In the late 1970s, Latorre became a St. Andrew’s employee, starting in the maintenance department and eventually becoming the Athletic Director, and running events such as the Halloween Carnival and the Christmas Parade during his tenure as a staff member. In the 1980s, Latorre earned a reputation as one of the top umpires in Dixie Youth baseball, where he was selected as a World Series umpire for ten consecutive years and was elected to the Dixie Youth National Board.

“Joe Latorre contributed so much in so many ways to St. Andrew’s and the community,” St. Andrew’s Parks and Playground Commission Chairman Mike Eykyn said. “There are multiple generations in the Lowcountry who benefited from his dedication to the kids.”

Lee was the original Tennis Director at St. Andrew’s, and is responsible for turning a little-used facility into one of the most popular places for tennis in Charleston. In 1990, she approached Carolyn Drose, then the executive director of St. Andrew’s, with a proposal to begin offering lessons and leagues at no cost to the agency. At the time, the brand-new courts were not known to the local tennis community, infrequently played on, and no organized classes or competition existed. Through Lee’s efforts, the courts soon became filled at all hours of the day with tennis programs for all ages and abilities offered.

Lee started a nationally acclaimed Wheelchair Tennis team and also a multi-cultural National Junior Tennis League to increase minority participation in St. Andrew’s tennis. At times, Drose had to make it mandatory that Lee go home for a few hours in the middle of the day because of the amount of hours she put in to build what became and continues to be one of the outstanding tennis programs in Charleston as well as the nation.

“JoAnn not only made the St. Andrew’s tennis facility popular with regular tennis players, she brought in many, many new players who might not have otherwise ever picked up a racquet,” Eykyn said. “She literally built our tennis program from scratch and turned it into a program to emulate.”

Latorre and Lee join Darius Rucker (2006), Carolyn Drose (2006), Tim Linker (2007), Robert Drose (2007), Jeff Gladwell (2008) and Ricky Linker (2009) in the St. Andrew’s Parks and Playground Hall of Fame.