Stanford Crew Reunion, May 20-22, 2025, Seattle, WA
Hi Steve,
Thanks for reaching out.
I have quite a few docs and albums I can share with you, which I'll do below. And I'll send a few pics annotated with names to faces. But I don't have time at the moment to write an "article" that might be more suitable for the newsletter. But let's start with what I have and see where that gets us.
The Class of '75 Stanford Crew Reunion, Seattle, May 2025
This is the third "event" where some number of Stanford Crew alums from the mid 70's have convened in Seattle. I moved to Seattle in 1990. By 2011 I was ready to dip my toe back in the water and I've been rowing at Pocock in Seattle ever since. The rowing in Seattle is excellent. And Pocock is a good place to host alumni events.
The first of these alumni events commemorated a teammate who had died from cancer, Mark Grosenbaugh, '75. Mark, Sam Francis, '75, Dick Bailey, '76, and I, '75, spent the summer of '75 trying out for the US National team in a lightweight straight four. We trained and competed that summer in Princeton, challenging the camp and other club entries at trials. In 2013 I arranged for the 3 surviving members of that straight four to meet, train and compete in the Row For The Cure (RFTC) that September. A friend and Pocock teammate filled in for Mark. RFTC then was a 5.6K head race. We met a few days early to knock the cobwebs off and raced the event the following Sunday. Rob and I live in Seattle; Sam lives in Montana; Dick lives in Tahiti.
Lightweight Straight Four competing at Canadian Henley, summer of 1975
Dick Bailey, stroke; Hank Koerner, 3 seat; Sam Francis, 2 seat; Mark Grosenbaugh, bow
Quad commemorating the Stanford '75 lightweight 4-, training in Lake Union, Seattle, Sept 2013
Hank Koerner, stroke; Sam Francis, 3 seat; Dick Bailey, 2 seat; Rob Leet sitting in for Mark G, bow
A brief vid of the same training session.
The second alumni event was in 2016. A good number of the class of '75 gathered at Lake Tahoe for a reunion in August 2015. We kicked around the idea of coming to Seattle to train and compete in the Tail of the Lake, a 4K head race in early October, in an eight. By December 2015 enough had committed to making the trip, and more importantly, preparing physically, that I began making plans and securing resources. We had a "summer training camp" in August. The gang returned to Seattle a few days before the regatta for more training and prep.
The class of '75 after an August 2016 training session, Pocock Rowing Club, Seattle.
L-R: Tim Odell, Rami Coutney, Dick Benster, Moe Baumgarten, Jim Wickersham, Clark Johnson, Murray Peck (class of '77), Sam Francis, Hank Koerner, John Allured, coach Dave Smith.
Class of '75 training session Aug 13, 2016
Tim Odell, stroke; Hank Koerner, 7 seat; John Allured, 6; Clark Johnson, 5; Moe Baumgarten, 4; Dick Benster, 3; Murray Peck, 2; Sam Francis, bow.
Elina, Jim Wickersham, Rami Courtney viewing the training from the launch
Video to create stoke for the event with lots of vintage pics.
Interesting footnote. Clark Johnson is the son of Rod Johnson, who, along with his Washington teammates, was profiled in a 1949 issue of Life Magazine as having excellent "Conibear" stroke form. An original print hangs at Pocock. For years there was an eight with Rod's name on it.
The third alumni event was the Stanford Crew Reunion just concluded in Seattle, May 20-22, 2025. There were 33 attendees, including spouses, from 4 different classes, '75 to '78. It also included coaches Len Sherr and Dick Dreissigacker and Dick's brother Pete, sister-in-law Bari, also co-founders of Concept 2. We had a Reunion dinner at the host hotel, the Silver Cloud on Broadway, and group dinners each of the following 2 nights. There were 2 rows, Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's featured 2 eights and a coaches quad. Thursday we were down to 2 eights. After Wednesday's row, there was an informal reception featuring the Dreissigackers, who talked about the inspiration, founding, growth, and next chapter of Concept 2. Besides reunion attendees, the reception was open to the general Pocock community. The reunion was super fun, if exhausting. But I think nearly everyone is psyched to have another.
Day 2 after row photo
L-R: Mike Glass; Roger Thompson; Murray Peck; Jim Bateson; Kent Edel; Hank Koerner; Dick Benster; Jim Wickersham; Anita Buckner kneeling; Corey Hayden kneeling; Don Flickinger; John Allured; Tim Odell; Pete Dreissigacker; Kraig Williams; Willis Wagner; Steve Messner; Sam Francis
Pre reunion album with lots of vintage and other pics, spanning multiple reunions, some duplicates
On Thu, Jun 5, 2025 at 3:56 AM Steve <smunn92651@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Hank-It's Steve Munn, Stanford Rowing '85 and one of The Rowing Association leads.Recently saw a pic from Messner of the '75-'78 Seattle get together. Impressive and you guys still look in shape!We would be Interested in capturing that story for the upcoming newsletter Boathouse of Champions if you could help us out with that?
- A couple of pics, with names we can build captions with
- The basic storyline(Seattle get together, coached by, people came from all over type stuff)
Does that sound good?Boathouse of Champions reaches approximately 2500 alums, parents, and friends of Stanford Rowing. We began publishing 2x/year starting in 2021 with the organization of The Rowing Association and work to reinstate Stanford teams.Thank you,Steve Munn '85949-306-1011
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