This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Mel Pender: Olympic athlete, entrepreneur and philanthropist

Mel Pender draws on the challenges and successes of his own life to motivate youth and effect change in his community.

Long-time Smyrna resident Mel Pender has had three lifetime’s full of success with careers as an Olympic athlete, an officer in the military and an entrepreneur. However, he says his life’s greatest work is motivating youth and helping others.

Pender is no stranger to hard work and success. The Atlanta native served two tours in Vietnam, played football for the Army team, won an Olympic gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay and served as West Point Military Academy’s first black track and field coach. Now he draws on his own life story to motivate young people to achieve.

“My motivation is love of God—I’m a Christian—and love of people,” he said. “I want to see people progress and stay healthy.”

Find out what's happening in Smyrna-Viningswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In addition to being a motivational speaker in schools, Pender also funds a scholarship that aims to help underserved students with good grades pay for college. He also coordinates track and field summer camps and track meets for children at the amateur level.

Last December Pender was honored with a banquet at the Smyrna Community Center to commemorate Mel Pender Day. Pender said the ceremony took him completely by surprise and called it “one of the most exciting days of my life.”

Find out what's happening in Smyrna-Viningswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“My daughter was here from Maryland and they took me to the community center in Smyrna and said we were going to see ‘The Nutcracker,’” he said. “I wanted to go watch football! I didn’t want to see a nutcracker. So when I walked in, there were all these people there. About 100 people. And I said, ‘What is this?’ And they said, ‘Congratulations it’s Mel Pender Day.’” 

At 74 years old, Pender shows no signs of slowing down. He is currently working on plans to construct a $75 million sports arena in Smyrna. He is interested in building the arena on the site of the old Hickory Lakes apartment complex. Plans for the arena include a track, a football field, a soccer field and an ice skating rink.

“We know that land is available. Hopefully we can find the money to build this project and make me the happiest guy in the world,” he said.

Pender hopes that the arena will help revitalize Smyrna’s north side. His wife, Debbie, explained that Pender is all about using his talents to effect positive change for his community.

“His motto is ‘If I can do it, I’m going to do it,’” she said. “We are the people who can make change for our own community and our own world. That’s him. We need to stand up and take care of our community and take care of our people. This complex that he’s working on so diligently to put together is to better the community. Is to create an environment that is conducive to change.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Smyrna-Vinings