The U.S. rowing community has received sad news that one of the great American rowing Olympians, William ‘Bill’ Stowe passed away in his home on 8 February, at an age of 75. Stowe was born in 1940 in Oak Park, Illinois, and was raised in Bronxville, New York. When he attended Kent School in Connecticut, he took up rowing under the late Hart Perry. Coming to Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, in 1959, Stowe was made captain and was placed in the stroke seat in the freshman crew that was undefeated that year.
Todd Kennett, Spirit of ’57 Director of Rowing at Cornell and head coach, writes: ‘[In 1959] they were undefeated and won the IRA. At one point in the IRA they were going for the course record and were said to have been 6-7 lengths ahead of second place. Bill had great boat moving ability, but he had a little bit of a wild side that landed him in a bit of trouble which kept him from rowing his sophomore year. When he returned his junior year, Coach Sanford saw his racing brilliance as well and placed him in the stroke seat too. Bill would lead the varsity for the next two years from the stroke seat, placing second at the IRA his junior year, and winning the IRA his senior year.’
After graduating from Cornell, Stowe joined the U.S. Navy and was deployed to Vietnam, where he rowed at the Club Nautique in Saigon. Back from Vietnam as a lieutenant, Stowe was stationed in Philadelphia, where he joined Vesper Boat Club. According to an article, penned by Ed Moran on USRowing’s website, Stowe had been invited to Vesper by Jack Kelly, Jr., ‘Kell’, who was putting together an eight for the 1964 Olympic Trials. The Vesper oarsmen at the time were a tough crowd, but Stowe took the stroke seat and during their first outing gave them a run for their lives. Boyce Budd, who was in the boat for the trials, told Moran: ‘Bill stroked this group that he had never rowed with before as naturally as he had done it for a year and a half. And it was fast. We went across the line and Emory Clark was behind me and I turned around and looked at him and Clark said, “That was the roughest (blanking) row I’ve ever been through”.’
The rest is Olympic rowing history: the Vesper boat, with Stowe in the stroke seat, took the Olympic gold medal in the eights at the 1964 Games in Tokyo.
All Together - coverIn 2005, Stowe published All Together: The Formidable Journey to the Gold with the 1964 Olympic Crew, his entertaining account of the 1964 rowing season.
After the Olympic row, Stowe turned to coaching and was Columbia University coach between 1967 and 1971, and then helped the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to start a rowing programme. For the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, he worked as the ABC television commentator.
In 2011, Bill Stowe received the Jack Kelly Award, ‘which recognizes superior achievements in rowing, service to amateur athletics, and success in their chosen profession, thereby serving as an inspiration to American rowers.’
Glenn Merry, USRowing Chief Executive Officer, told Ed Moran, ‘Bill Stowe is a man I admire. He was a leader in rowing, a mythical figure from the stroke seat of the Great Eight, someone who truly embodied the best our sport is. His involvement at every facet, from Dad Vail to the NRF to USRowing, itself, reflected how deeply he lived in the sport. We have lost an important figure in rowing and he will be missed.’
Allen Howard Stowe, 76, of Vero Beach, Fla., and Normandy Beach, N.J., died Monday, Aug. 5, 2013, in Vero Beach from complications related to pancreatic cancer. A celebratory memorial service will be held on Friday, Oct. 4, at 3:30 p.m. in Rollins Chapel at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Mr. Stowe (a.k.a. Tuff) was born July 31, 1937, in Oak Park, Ill., to William P. and Darleen A. Stowe. Mr. Stowe (a.k.a. Alio) was a graduate of The Kent School, Class of 1956; Dartmouth College, Class of 1960; The Amos Tuck Business School, Class of 1961, and The University of Virginia Law School, Class of 1964. He used this educational foundation to practice law, establish and manage companies, and to successfully make his way in the world. However, in his own words, his most direct purpose was "to care for his loved ones in the best possible way while enjoying life responsibly." By all accounts, he achieved this goal. Mr. Stowe (a.k.a. Tuffy) was renowned for his unique ability to seamlessly intertwine disparate groups of people, whether they were from Bronxville, Ridgewood, Princeton, Hanover, Normandy or Vero Beach into a cohesive band of revelers.
Leslie Stephen was born in Kensington Gore, London. His family were members of the Clapham Sect, a branch of late nineteenth-century evangelical Christianity. Stephen took Anglican orders in 1859, but a later crisis of faith led to him formally renounce them in 1875. He was educated at Eton College, King's College, Cambridge and Trinity Hall, where he took up a fellowship in 1854, which he resigned in 1867. In that same year he married Harriet (Minny) Thackeray; she died in 1875 from eclampsia while pregnant with their first child.
From 1871 to 1882 Stephen edited the Cornhill Magazine, where he published most of his literary criticism. Stephen encouraged the careers of Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edmund Gosse and Henry James. In addition, Stephen published two volumes of 'The History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century' (1876 and 1881) and 'The Science of Ethics' (1882). Stephen was an agnostic and humanist, publishing an essay, 'An Agnostic's Apology' in 1893. Stephen was a keen mountaineer during the Golden Age of Alpinism. Stephen was President of the Alpine Club from 1865 to 1868 and edited their journal between 1868 and 1872.
In 1878 Stephen married Julia Duckworth. Together they had four children, including the writer Virginia Woolf and the artist Vanessa Bell. Julia died of influenza in 1895.