David Meador
Year of Induction: 1994 | Categories: Basketball, Football, Golf, Individual, Track
A better-than-average athlete in high school, David Meador did not let a tragic auto accident deter him from excelling in life and in his favorite sport. Meador lost his sight when a police car, in which he was riding on a trip home from completing his shift as a radio-dispatcher for the police department, gave a pursuit to a fleeing violator and crashed.
Meador, overcame his disability to become a successful businessman and one of the top golfers in the nation. He won the National Championship of the United States Blind Golfers Association (USBGA) at the Firestone Country Club at Akron, Ohio, in 1977 and has finished second seven times.
In high school he participated in football, basketball, track and golf. He was an All North Egypt Conference center on the 1965 football team that finished with an 8-1 record and won the NEC Championship. He was a member of the first Salem Community High School golf team. His basketball playing started at St Teresa grade school and carried on through high school.
Meador attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and Loyola University in Chicago.
Meador is a successful insurance agent for Northwestern Mutual Life in Nashville, Tennessee, having earned his Certified Life Underwriters ranking. He not only enjoys his association with the USBGA for the opportunity to play golf at some of the finest courses in the country but appreciates the funds those events raise for charities, particularly the Leader Dog Program for the Blind. He has been a member of the USBGA since 1971.
David is the son of Delores Meador of Salem and the late Francis Meador. His father was member of the 1942-43 State Basketball Team and the 1941 football team, both having been inducted into the Salem Sports Hall of Fame. His youngest brother, Joe, is an assistant pro at the Sandestin Golf Resort in Destin, Florida.
David is married and he and his wife, Connie, have two daughters, Emily and Julia.