Duke Flags Lowered: Former Duke Trustee Chair Harold “Spike” Yoh Dies

Harold “Spike” Yoh served as chair of the Board of Trustees from 2000-2003 during the presidency of Nannerl O. Keohane.
Harold “Spike” Yoh served as chair of the Board of Trustees from 2000-2003 during the presidency of Nannerl O. Keohane.

Duke alumnus and former Board of Trustees chair Harold “Spike” Yoh died Friday at age 87. Through decades of volunteer leadership, philanthropy and advising university officers, Yoh helped to strengthen Duke, its teaching and research mission and campus life.

“Spike Yoh was a remarkable human being who will be remembered for his tremendous legacy of service to others,” said President Vincent Price. “Spike’s enthusiastic support for Duke’s faculty, students and athletics programs strengthened our university community and expanded our impact in the world. My deepest condolences go out to the Yoh family as we honor Spike’s memory.”

After graduating from Duke in 1958 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering, Yoh earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962.

He then worked at his father’s company, Day & Zimmermann, which provides services in construction, design, manufacturing, maintenance and engineering for leading corporations around the world. In 1976, Yoh bought the company from his father and became CEO of the company. He grew it into a billion-dollar company and made it one of the largest family businesses in the country. He retired from the company in 1999, selling it to his children.

Yoh believed in giving back to the communities that benefited him, and Duke was the recipient of much of that support.

“In all the work I’ve done – in my local community and around the country – everyone knows Duke, and they know that I am involved with the university,” Yoh told Duke Magazine in 2010. “That association always gives me instant credibility. It’s been one of my secret ingredients for success.”

Yoh told the story that he came to Duke by some misdirection from his father. Going on what Yoh expected to be a college tour of Penn State University, his father told him instead he was visiting Duke. He fell in love with the southern location and the challenging engineering curriculum.

Yoh met his wife Mary at Duke, and they were married for 56 years before her death. Mary graduated from the Woman’s College at Duke in 1959 and died in 2015.  The Yohs and their five children, a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren collectively earned 13 degrees from Duke.

Harold “Spike” Yoh, second from right, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Yoh Football Center.
Harold “Spike” Yoh, second from right, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Yoh Football Center.

Among the many leadership roles he held at Duke, Yoh was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1991 and served as chair from 2000-2003 during the presidency of Nannerl O. Keohane. In this period, the university launched the Women’s Initiative that led to tangible benefits for the university community. It was also a moment of strong international outreach, including the opening of the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

Additionally, Yoh served on the Pratt School of Engineering Board of Visitors, the Athletics Leadership Board, the Annual Fund Executive Committee, and the Alumni Board of Directors.

The Yoh Football Center, opened in 2002, is named in honor of the Yoh family, whose multi-million dollar donation was the lead gift for the building. Spike and his Sigma Nu fraternity brothers, affectionately known as “The Ollie Brothers,” could often be seen together at basketball games in Cameron Indoor Stadium, sitting in the end zone under the basket.

Yoh received a number of awards from the university, including the Distinguished Alumni Award (2010), the Charles A. Dukes Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service (1996) and the Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award (1983).

In addition to his volunteer work at Duke, Yoh’s community involvement has included leadership roles with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the University of the Arts, the Haverford School (where he attended high school), and the Philadelphia Council of Boy Scouts.

He is survived by his wife, Gail, and sons Harold Lionel Yoh III ’83, Michael H. Yoh ’85; Jeffrey Milus Yoh ’88, ’94; and William Courtlandt Yoh ’93; two step-children, Stephen McConnell ’93 and Stephanie McConnell Moleski ’95; 14 grandchildren; and five great grandchildren. His daughter, Karen B. Yoh ’87, died in 2007.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at The Sanctuary of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. Consistent with his focus on others, the family requests that friends consider making a donation in his honor to the charity of their choice. Livestream of the service can be accessed at the church website.