by Judy Gilles

One of USMS’s longest members and founding fathers passed away on Jan. 1^st 2021.  Ted was 92.  Ted was an Arizona Master Swimmer who lived in Green Valley for approximately the last 25 years.  Before he moved to AZ, Ted live in the New England area and was the founder of New England Masters. 

He was USMS president from 1978 through 1981.  He worked with Robert Beach, Ransom Arthur and June Krauser to start USMS in the very early 1970’s.  Ted told me Robert Beach kept the individual records, June kept did the newsletter and he kept the relay records.  Just a reminder to those of you reading this, in the early 1970’s there were no cell phones or internet.  Everything was done with landline phone calls, stop watches, and copy paper.  Ted held many top 10 records in the 50, 100, and 200 yard and meter breaststroke events.  He also was one of the very first master swimmers to become USA-S certified as an official.  He swam in and officiated almost every national meet during his time.  I am personally aware of at least one, if not two, rule changes that took place because of calls he made at national meets.  It has also been said that he attended every Board of Directors meeting through this last Zoom Annual Meeting we had this past September. 

If you would like to see a photo and more on Ted you can look on Facebook under Frank (Skip) Thompson.  Skip wrote a wonderful background on Ted and how much he meant to USMS and so many of us.  His wife, Lee, still lives in Green Valley.