[PacMasterUpdate] Pacific Masters Update October 13, 2005

[pacmasterupdate at PacificMasters.org]

MARJORIE SHARPE (1917-2005)
After suffering a stroke two months ago, Marjorie 
Sharpe passed away yesterday. She was 88. 
Marjorie was known for her love of life. She 
always had a smile on her face and a gleam in her 
eye.  At the time of her death, Marjorie held six 
national records in the backstroke.

At the end of the Update, there are remembrances of Marjorie.

CHANGE IN SWIMMING RULES
Starting Sepetember 19th Backstrokers could start 
with their toes out of the water (but not curled 
over the gutter).

The Breaststoker can now do a dolphin kick off 
the wall. I would not try it now, as everything 
has not been sorted out. So there is a chance you 
could do it leagally and get dq'ed or do it wrong 
and get away with it. As USA Swimming and US 
Masters figure it out, information will be in the 
update.

UPCOMING MEETS
Wine Country Invitational
Santa Rosa Masters will be holding the Wine 
Country Invitational in Healdsburg, October 14 
and 15 . You  can enter on race day.

STROKE CLINIC
DAVIS AQUATIC MASTERS will host stroke clinics 
for fitness swimmers from 1-2:30 pm on the 
following dates at the Civic pool in Davis just 
off the corner of 5th and B St.

Clinics are $10 each, pre-paid, for non-DAM 
members. Coach Rick Powers has given more than 
100 clinics in 30 countries. DAM staff and 
swimmers will assist you in the water with your 
technique. Butterfly Sat. Oct. 15; Breaststroke 
Sun.
Oct. 16.

Contact Rick Powers at rpswimmer at hotmail.com

TUOLOMNE COUNTY SHORT COURSE MEET CANCELLED
The Tuolomne County Short Course Meet on October 
29th has been cancelled. All meet entry fees will 
be refunded.


CHANGE IN SCHEDULE
There was a problem with the Heather Farms pool 
schedule. The 2005 Pacific Masters Short Course 
Meters Championships have been moved to November 
4th, 5th and 6th. This meet is the first meet 
where the distance events will be held on the 
last day.

COACH NEEDED
Bay Masters (BAY) is in need of an Assistant 
Masters Coach to run the evening practices at the 
newly opened  UCSF Bakar Fitness Center (at 
Mission Bay). The facility has an outdoor 6 lane 
x 25 yard pool on the roof overlooking the bay. 
 Interested candidates  should contact  Annette 
Wheeler, Aquatics Manager at: 
    http://awheeler@cls.ucsf.edu  or  phone: 
 (415) 502-4446.


YOUR ANSWERS ARE HELPFUL TO PACIFIC MASTERS SCHEDULING
Toulomne County Aquatic Masters (TCAM) 
regretfully decided to cancel their pool meet 
scheduled for Saturday, October 29, 2005. Pacific 
Masters would like feedback from you to assist in 
future meet planning.

1. How far would you travel to a meet?
2. Would you rather attend a one-day meet on Saturday or Sunday?
3. Do you prefer to attend multiple day meets 
(3-day championship meets) or one-day meets?
4. Are there certain times during the year you 
prefer to attend a meet (for example, you only go 
to meets during summer months)
5. Any other comments on the timing or location of Pacific Masters pool meets?

Please send any responses to MAILTO:barryfasbender at comcast.net

Opportunity Knocks
- Swim for Malaria!
Pacific Masters Swimming encourages you to 
support the World Swim for Malaria, a global 
grassroots swimming initiative partnering with 
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Speedo, and Microsoft 
that can be swum on or before December 3rd. The 
goal is to have a million people participate in 
this event. 100% of all monies raised will go 
toward the purchase and installation of mosquito 
netting - the single most effective way of 
preventing malaria.

Though we don't experience malaria first hand 
here in the US, at least a million people die 
from malaria each year. Some put the estimates as 
high as 2.7 million. 70% of the deaths are of 
children under 5. You can find all the 
information you need at 
http://www.worldswimformalaria including 
sponsorship forms, how to collect and submit 
donations, the background and goals of this 
event, and the pledges of participation of 
individuals, groups, Masters teams, and corporate 
organizations around the world.

You can swim this event at Stanford Swimming pool 
this event on December 3rd or you can organize 
this event at your own pool. Pacific Masters 
encourages you and your friends and teammates to 
join in this effort to make a real difference in 
the world.


Have a good week

michael

---
MARJORIE SHARPE

Tim Edmonds, Coach of Stanford Masters

It is with a sad heart that I write to tell you 
that Marjorie Sharpe passed away yesterday 
morning.  Marjorie suffered a stroke about two 
months ago and was able to have some nice moments 
with friends following the stroke.  Her last days 
were quiet and peaceful.

  Marjorie was, without doubt, one of the most 
vibrant and wonderful individuals whom it has 
ever been my pleasure to know.  She had two great 
loves in her life, her husband Al, who passed 
away nearly 9 years ago, and the water.  On too 
many mornings to count you could find Marjorie 
seeking the perfect backstroke, the perfect flip 
turn, or the elusive perfect freestyle in her 
lane.  Always there to share a tidbit of advice 
with a new swimmer or share a story about her 
travels with Al she was a wonderful ambassador 
of Swimming and a true reminder of what it can 
mean to have a long very full life.  Swimming 
well into her 88th year kept her young and gave 
her a fulfillment that she could never quite put 
into the right words. She would never argue about 
being called a "kept woman", constantly seeking 
the warm embrace and the support of the 
chlorinated water of the Stanford pools.

You will be missed my "sweetheart"......our pools 
will be a little less full without you in them.

A memorial service will be planned in the near 
future and I'll send out details when they are 
available.   Please feel free to email me or use 
the Masters Misc. list to share memories or 
stories about Marjorie.  I would love to hear 
them....more now than ever. Warmly....Tim

---
  Whenever the alarm goes off at 4:50am on a 
winter morning, and the rain is pounding my roof, 
I always ponder the thought of skipping morning 
Masters swimming. Then, without exception, I 
would think about Marjorie, walking so 
tentatively down the pool stairs with both 
crutches, saying hello to everyone, and absorbing 
the rain as if it were a petty nuisance.

She has always been my inspiration for putting up 
with the little annoyance of swim practice. She 
would muscle through anything in life, and make 
tons of friends along the way. My understanding 
is that at Ocean competition swims, someone just 
carries Marjorie out beyond the waves and tosses 
her in for the start of another great swim.

She was an angel, and God is probably thrilled to 
have her swimming on the Master's Team up top.

Brian Avery

----

One of my fondest memories of Marjorie was early 
in the fall of my freshman year at Stanford. It 
was 6:50 in the morning and because Marjorie was 
also an "honorary member" of the varsity team, 
she often shared our locker room. We were all 
getting changed after cycling, and I remember 
being shocked that she had already been in the 
water for an hour and a half (here I was thinking 
we were the tough ones!). She was tying her Keds 
over her swimming socks, and during our 
conversation I asked her how swimming was going. 
She lit up and said she was so excited because it 
was her birthday and she was "aging up" and was 
ready to break all the world records for the 85+ 
group. We laughed and I wished her luck, and sure 
enough, the next week she reported back that she 
had done just that. Every day Marjorie amazed me 
with her smiles and motivation. That tiny body 
housed one of the biggest hearts I have ever 
known.

Tinley Bick

----
Majorie was a regular entrant at open water 
events all over northern California. I saw her 
time and time again, usually with Al when he was 
alive. I'll always remember the Whiskeytown Lake 
swim one year, which offered both the 1-mile and 
3-mile events.  Whiskeytown is up by Redding, and 
Majorie wasn't about to waste a four hour drive 
each way by entering only one event, so she swam 
both!

She could barely walk on land, but was she a 
terror in the water! Quite an inspiration, and 
always ready with a smile and a compliment!

  Jim Merchant

--
I knew right away the first time I met Marjorie 
that she was a very special and inspirational 
person. That was nearly a decade ago -- it was 
after workout in the women’s locker room at 
Stanford. Marjorie was dripping wet, smiling and 
making some sort of comment about her time for a 
swimming event.  Being impressed that this older 
lady was still competing, let alone swimming 
masters workouts at Stanford, I asked her when 
she started competitive swimming, assuming she 
had been competing most of her life. “Oh no!” she 
said, “I only started competing in my 70s.  That 
made a huge impression on me. Now I think of 
Marjorie every time I think I’m too old to take 
on something physically challenging or new. I 
thought of her when I finally decided to learn 
how to do flip turns in my late 40s I sucked so 
much water up my nose those first few months, but 
stuck to it and succeeded knowing there are 
people like Marjorie in the world.


Another incident I’ll never forgot and speaks to 
the strength, humor and joy of life that Marjorie 
had. It was at PMS Short Course Yards 
Championships in Santa Cruz a couple of years 
ago. Marjorie had slipped off the blocks during 
her dive on an early event and scraped the skin 
off one of her shins.  That didn’t stop her from 
swimming her other events that day. One of the 
meet officials had taped-up her wound and she 
proceeded to swim her next event. Apparently the 
tape started to unwind during her swim and by the 
end she was dragging a long tail of bandage 
through the water. She finished her swim fine, 
but was having a hard time untangling the mess 
and getting herself out of the lane, so I helped 
her out. I was amazed when I saw the bandage and 
bleeding wound she was swimming with, but she 
told me what happened, just shook her head and 
said chuckling “That if you live long enough 
everything is bound to happen to you!”


What a wonderful lady! I will miss seeing her at 
meets and will think of her often.
-Lisa Ryner

---
I first met Marjorie when I first started 
swimming Masters in the early 90's with the 
Peninsula Covenant Community Center Masters. Back 
then Marjorie was using a walker. But, as time 
went by she gave up the walker and started using 
a cane. It was as if the more she swam the 
younger she became. It has been a privilege to 
swim Masters with Marjorie. I don't know anyone 
else who managed to break so many Masters records 
as she was able to do. She knew all of her 
competition by name. And she knew what she had to 
do to win. She just kept showing up and winning. 
Here's one for a wonderful person and a great 
Masters swimmer.

Ken Merritt
-- 
michael
Michael W. Moore