Yori Wada was a Bay Area community leader, a youth advocate, and the first Asian American to sit on the University of California Board of Regents. Born in 1916 in Hanford, California, Wada graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in journalism in 1940. Following his service in World War II, he began working at the Booker T. Washington Center and the University YMCA, eventually rising to the position of executive director at the YMCA’s Buchanan Street branch. In addition to his 22 years of leadership at the YMCA, he held numerous positions as a criminal justice and youth advocate, including chairman of the Mayor’s Council on Criminal Justice, board member of the California Youth Authority, and member of the Juvenile Justice commission. In this interview, Wada discusses his university and military years, the internment and homecoming of Japanese Americans, his experiences as a university regent, and his lifelong involvement with a wide range of nonprofit and community service organizations. This interview is part of a group of interviews documenting the history of Bay Area philanthropy.