I’ll share my own memories later. For now, please see my obituary of David Pain on Times of San Diego. It’s impossible to overstate what David meant to me, the sport and the world. Please join me in wishing deepest condolences to Linda Pain and their extended family. Meanwhile, here are some touching remembrances from his 90th birthday party and 2014 salute by the San Diego Track Club.
Friday afternoon, I was decompressing after a busy week by checking Facebook. Then I came across a post by Olympian Ruth Wysocki, who replied to a sad note about the death of Bill Gookin, a San Diegan famed for inventing the Gookinaid fluid-replacement drink. I jumped into action, contacting Gookin’s first wife Donna (a masters track and LDR star) and Bill’s daughter Debra. I wrote several San Diego running gurus and did a ton of Googling for my story in Times of San Diego. I didn’t finish writing, tweaking and formatting until 5 a.m. I’m proud of the result. (I…
Former national masters chair Barbara Kousky has died at age 77, according to a spokesman for the Prefontaine Classic. Jeff Oliver, spokesman for the Diamond League meet in Eugene, Oregon, where Kousky once lived and partnered with meet director Tom Jordan, said Thursday: “Barbara sadly passed away last weekend. No funeral or memorial arrangements have been made as of yet.” Kousky — pronounced COW-ski — headed masters track under The Athletics Congress (TAC), which later became USA Track & Field. In 1990, she was named winner of the David Pain Award for Distinguished Service to the sport. Kousky and Jordan,…
Dan Bulkley died a winner. Even better, he was a player — someone who competed in track (and other sports) just for the joy of it. As his local Oregon paper reported Monday: “Bulkley, a famous masters athlete and pioneer of [Southern Oregon University’s] physical education programs and Mt. Ashland Ski Area, died Sunday evening. The Phoenix resident was 101 and, said his daughter, Dani, of Bend, ‘His philosophy was that the less you do, the less you do — and the more you do, the more you do.’ His secret was to keep moving. He fractured his back a…
George Kleeman was a superstar in his field — officiating track meets on the national and international stage. When he died April 22 at 77, a week after a major heart attack, he deserved his kudos. Services were Monday in Pleasant Hill, California. Among his dozens of major meets — USATF masters national in 1993, 1995 and 1997 and world masters meets in 1985, 1989, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2011. “Many recognize Kleeman’s numerous contributions to national and association events and committees over the past three decades, but he was also an accomplished distance runner in the 1960s-70s…
