The John Yarborough Award is named after John Yarborough, the first President of the Association in 1953 Along with colleagues, Christine Ricker and Don Watts, John was the impetus in establishing a vision to create an organization that would bring together housing colleagues to discuss and solve difficulties each was experiencing. As Director of Residence at Stanford University, John hosted the first annual "conference." He was a strong believer that many common problems could be solved by "pooling our experiences."