The Crew Crew

Crew rowers form a tight-knit network that lasts well beyond the university.

By Bill Richards | April 2010 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

rew has always been the ultimate team sport. Football has
its star quarterbacks, basketball its Michael Jordans, but even the best
athletes won’t win at crew if they can’t all row in synch. So it’s no surprise
that when they graduate and move on to other pursuits, there’s still a network
of rowers connecting business, medicine, law and other occupations.

John Nordstrom (seated in bow) with the UW’s “coxless fours”
team during his University of Washington days. He graduated
in 1958.

“Crew
tends to create the sort of friendships you don’t get in other sports, and that
spills over after graduation into social and business relationships,” says John
Wilcox, a retired executive compensation specialist who rowed for the
University of Washington from 1958 to 1961 and now chairs its board of rowing
stewards. Washington has always been a hive of rowers and ex-rowers. It is hard
to do business here without bumping into a former Husky rower, Wilcox says. In
Seattle, he says, “crew is an absolute door opener.”

“Of all the many things I did to
prepare for a career as a physician and administrator, rowing has been a
principal contributor,” says Dr. Paul Ramsey of UW Medicine, who rowed for
Harvard from 1967 to 1971 and still gets out on his single at 5 a.m. daily. “In
rowing, you quickly learn that success depends on everyone doing their
role.”

Here’s a list of Seattle
rowers—until the advent of Title IX, mostly men—and where they are now.

Carl Lovsted, UW
’52, retired owner Lovsted-Worthington, local insurance brokerage (1952 Olympic bronze medalist)

Chuck Alm, UW ’58, retired
senior executive, Olympic Stain

Lou Gellermann, UW
’58, retired “Voice of the Dawgs” announcer

John Nordstrom, UW ’58, retired
senior executive, Nordstrom

Lex Gamble, UW ’59, New York
investment banker, former managing director of Smith Barney, Morgan Grenfell,
and Kidder Peabody & Co.

Michael O’Byrne, UW ’61,
retired executive, Paccar

John Wilcox, UW ‘61,
retired executive compensation specialist

Ron Wolfkill, UW ’61, retired
owner, Wolfkill Feed & Fertilizer, Monroe

George Akers, UW ’62, partner,
Montgomery Purdue Blankinship & Austin

John Magnuson, UW ’62, founder,
Magnuson Management Co., residential real estate management company

C. Kent Carlson, UW ‘64,
partner, K&L Gates

Jon Runstad, UW ’64, founder,
Wright Runstad

Dr. Paul Ramsey, Harvard ’71,
CEO, UW Medicine, and dean, UW School of Medicine

Jesse Franklin, UW
’77, partner, K&L Gates

Mike Hess, UW ’78, partner,
First Western Development, commercial real estate development

Ginny Gilder, Yale
‘79, co-owner, Seattle Storm (1984 Olympic silver medalist)

Tom Hull, Dartmouth
’79, telecom executive (1980 Olympic team)

Dr. Douglas Wood, Harvard ’79, chief of general thoracic surgery, UW Medical Center

Charles Clapp, UW
’81, investment banker, Boston (1982 World Championship gold medalist, 1984
Olympic silver medalist)

Jim Pugel, UW ’81, Assistant Chief of Police, city of Seattle

John Zevenbergen, UW
’81, investor (1981 World Championship bronze medalist)

Blake Nordstrom, UW
‘82, president, Nordstrom

Betsy Beard, UW ‘84,
MD, pharmacist, Swedish (1984 Olympic silver medalist)

Kyle Enger, UW ’92, principal, BBI Financial

Trevor Vernon, UW ’92, owner,
Vernon Publications

John Kueber, UW ’93,
associate publisher, Tiger Oak Publications

Phil Henry, UW ’94, sales manager, Guidant Financial (World
Championships 1997, ‘99 gold and ‘98 bronze medalist, 1999 Pan Am Games gold
medalist, 2000 Olympic team alternate)

Main story: "A Shell Game"

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