A great athlete.
Frank Shorter, a graduate of the class of ’65 at my son’s prep school, returned today after 52 years to give the commencement speech to the class of ’17. My son and I were there; he returns as a sophomore in the fall. It is no exaggeration to say that Shorter put distance running on the American map, for until he came along only professional masochists ran marathons. By contrast, it’s now hard to find someone who has not run a marathon or two.
During his introduction, the Dean of the School stated that Frank was a two times Olympic gold medalist in the marathon. In fact, the Dean’s math was correct, for Shorter won the gold in 1972 and the silver in 1976. Eh? Well, after the Berlin Wall fell the East Germans tried to burn all the evidence of their crimes but a surviving copy of the records detailed the doping by their ‘athletes’ and, yes, the ‘winner’ in 1976 was #62 on the list of the 100 plus athletes whose performance was attributable to big pharma. So Frank has two golds. In his typically self-effacing way, he has not pursued the upgrade of his 1976 silver meal, the gold being rightfully his, preferring to focus his energies on fighting doping in sports.
His inspiring speech focused on what he terms ‘compartmentalization’, the ability to focus on the task at hand, filtering out extraneous distractions. A wonderful skill for any student to cultivate. In 1972 he ran the marathon just days after terrorists had slain most of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich and this mental skill empowered him to set aside the horror and focus on the task at hand. But this very same skill was fundamental to the fact that he ever became a runner in the first place, for running was his escape from a brute father who would come home daily and beat him up, when not beating up one of his many siblings. Running was his escape from this monster, and escape he did.
The Commencement Address.
With Dean Peter Fayroian at his right.
What could be better than Graduation Day on a perfect New England afternoon? My son’s old freshman dorm is center right in the background.
After ceremonies were concluded, new graduates were to be found lighting celebratory cigars – now no longer forbidden them! – on the grounds and Winston and I set about cornering the great man so that we might ask him to dedicate his biography to a budding cross-country runner, a request Frank Shorter graciously acceded to.
Winston with the inscribed biography.
The dedication.
We asked to shake this great American’s hand and now will not wash ours for a week!
You can find Frank Shorter’s biography here and it is highly recommended.
You can see Frank’s Commencement Speech here.
Panny GX7 at ISO 1600, 45-200mm zoom and 14-45mm kit zoom (last two images).