Bill Stowe

Bill Stowe won many championships as a stroke-oar. He began rowing at the Kent School and then went to college at Cornell. As a freshman he stroked the Cornell freshman eight to a victory at the IRAs, and repeated that victory with the varsity in both 1961 and 1962. In 1963 he had an unusual club affiliation, rowing for the Club de Nautique de Saigon at the Hong Kong Regatta, while a lieutenant in the Navy on tour in Vietnam. Upon returning home in 1963 he joined the Vesper BC and again was the stroke oar for their Olympic eight in 1964. At the 1967 PanAmerican Games he also won a gold medal, this time in the fours. Two of his teammates in that boat were from the 1964 Vesper Olympic eight, Hugh Foley and coxswain Bob Zimonyi).

Stowe later became crew coach at Columbia University from 1967-71, where he was known for leading US federal marshalls through underground tunnels to help them take back the campus, after it had been taken over by SDS (Students for a Dissident Society). After Columbia, Stowe established the rowing program at the US Coast Guard Academy, helping them dominate the Dad Vails Regatta for several years. He was a rowing commentator for ABC Television at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. In 2011, 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.”