USA Softball Region 9

A native of Syracuse, NY, Pendergast served as ASA president from 1976-1977. He moved to Bremerton, WA in 1944 and was named a district commissioner in 1947. He remained in that position until officially being named state commissioner in January of 1954. He had been acting commissioner since June of 1953. Pendergast retired in 1977 after 31 years of serving as parks superintendent for the City of Bremerton, WA. He worked for the Syracuse Municipal Park Department from 1934 through 1939, and he was a member of the Central New York Umpires’ Association from 1936 until he left in 1944. He was a past president of the Washington State Recreation Association. He served as vice chairman of the National Softball Hall of Fame and ASA Headquarters Building Committee from 1964-1973. In 1978 he received the first Washington State Recreation and Park Society award for continuous and outstanding service to public recreation. Pendergast served as first chairman of the Pan American Games Softball Committee (1979).  He was born January 5, 1914 in Syracuse, NY, and died in a plane crash June 2, 1986 in a remote section of British Columbia at the age of 72. Pendergast was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 1979.