Dr. Robert Sturkey

When Cuyahoga Falls dentist Dr. Robert Sturkey left his practice 10 years ago to become director of diversity at Walsh Jesuit High School, no one expected the Walsh graduate to convince Archbishop Desmond Tutu, civil rights attorney Morris Dees and Martin Luther King’s daughter, Yolanda King, to help him with his job.

Yet Sturkey lured these speakers, among others, to Walsh — a high school with a black population of less than 2 percent — to teach students about social justice issues. Now, as he is preparing to leave his position at Walsh, he continues his personal mission to help develop our youngest generation.

This month, he and Olympic gold medalist Madeline Manning-Mims are bringing several Olympic gold medalists — including Manning-Mims, Mark Spitz and Kerri Strug — to Akron to participate in Camp Olympic, a four-day program for children. The camp aims to aid in physical, character and attitude development of those who attend.

“One of the things that we’ve been pretty careful about is selecting gold medal Olympians who are high-quality, high-content individuals,” Sturkey says.

While the curriculum will include sports, he stresses that components such as attitude, leadership and discipline have just as much to do with an athlete’s ability to succeed as physical talent.

“That’s as much a part of the camp as the physical,” he says. “Our goal is that the outcome of the four days will plant the seed of moral and physical excellence in this group of America’s future leaders.”

Sturkey, who is a marathon runner, hopes to set up similar camps across the country after this year’s Akron camp.

He expects 200 children to attend, 50 to 60 of whom will qualify as disadvantaged and whose expenses will be covered by local business sponsors. In fact, Sturkey estimates 65 percent of the cost of running the camp will be covered by business sponsors who want to invest in their next generation of leadership. Camp Olympic runs July 15 through 18. For more information, call Dr. Sturkey at Mercury Management Corp., (330) 253-4964.