Information for May 1 Coach Arce Memorial Service
A memorial service Celebrating the life of William "Bill" Arce, founding CMS Athletics Director, is scheduled for Sunday, May 1 at Claremont McKenna College. The service will begin at 1:00 p.m. at McKenna Auditorium, followed by a reception at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at 2:30 p.m. All are invited to join the Arce Family and CMC in remembering the legacy of Bill Arce as a coach, mentor, teacher, and role model.
During his 27-year tenure as head baseball coach and as the founding athletic director of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletic department, Bill Arce developed the program, facilities and staff into one of the top NCAA Division III private college programs in the country and the department remains so today. For his years of dedication to baseball and the campus community, Arce is an inductee into the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Halls of Fame.
As athletic director under Arce's leadership from 1956-1983, the department grew from nine men's programs in 1956 to 19 by the time he retired in 1983, which included the addition of several women's sports in what became Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletics as it is today. On the diamond, he served as head coach from 1959-1979 and totaled 443 career wins and three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) titles. In 2001, the ABCA honored Arce by selecting him as the recipient of the Lefty Gomez Award, one of the most prestigious awards in all of amateur baseball that is presented each year to an individual who has distinguished himself amongst his peers and has contributed significantly to the game of baseball locally, nationally, and internationally.