Golfers 'Fore' Alzheimer's Disease

William J. McKeown Jr. wasn’t a golfer, but you’d never know it.

Since his death in 1991 of Alzheimer’s Disease, the Cheltenham resident’s family has been organizing the wildly successful William J. McKeown Golf Classic "Fore" Alzheimer’s Care in his honor. Over the last two decades, the McKeowns - who have since established the McKeown Foundation – have raised more than $2 million for Alzheimer’s research, care and education.

Dresher resident Joe McKeown, who is president of the foundation, recalls the Montgomery County golf classic’s humble beginnings.

“When my father passed away, my brother said, ‘we should do something in his memory. Let’s have a golf outing,’ “ Joe McKeown said. “It sold out in a matter of 10 days.”

The same has been true each year since. Even with the 20th annual outing still about six weeks away – May 9 at the 18-hole in Horsham - Joe McKeown said he’s “very close” to a sell-out already.

“We have so many giveaways it’s like Christmas time,” he said of the various trips, vacation homes and sports memorabilia donated for auctions and raffles. “Everybody wants to be a part of it.”

While golfers get into the hole-in-one swing of things, McKeown said food vendors will dish up free food on the course. And, in a true testament to the kind of man William McKeown was, Joe McKeown said beverage providers who knew his father from his helm at Philadelphia’s McKeown Beverage Company, will once again quench golfers’ thirsts for water, soda and beer from “all over the world” during the event.

“He was very outgoing, very giving, very generous,” Joe McKeown said, adding that even though William McKeown did not golf, he would be proud of and in full support of the great cause. “He was just a giver … and always trying to help people.”

Click here to register, or learn more about the 20th annual golf outing, to be held May 9 at  Commonwealth National Golf Club, 250 Babylon Road in Horsham.