Perry Receives 2010 World Rowing Distinguished Service to Rowing Award

January 23, 2011

Even on a federal holiday, when most of the country was enjoying a day off, W. Hart Perry was in his office working late into the afternoon. But that’s no news to anyone who knows Perry, the executive director of the National Rowing Foundation (NRF).

Since a baseball coach suggested he would be better off rowing, Perry has worked tirelessly in the sport of rowing. In the span of over 53 years, he has rowed, coached, served as an official in both national and international events – including the Henley Royal Regatta, two Olympic Games, 18 World Rowing Junior Championships and 10 World Rowing Championships – and in 1974, became the first non-British Commonwealth citizen to be named a Henley steward.

For his service to rowing, Perry has been honored with six major awards and inducted into four different rowing hall of fames, including the National Rowing Hall of Fame.

Last night, Perry added a seventh honor to his list when he was awarded the 2010 World Rowing Distinguished Service to Rowing Award at the World Rowing Coaches Conference Gala.

“I’m thrilled. I’d be nuts if I wasn’t,” said the 78-year-old Perry last week after learning he was going to be presented with the award. “I’m absolutely stunned. But it still hasn’t sunk in, I guess. There are a lot of other people who did good things in rowing, too.

“My feeling is, yes, maybe I’ve done a few things for rowing, but rowing has shaped a life for me that I will forever be grateful for.”

There are certainly others who have worked hard for the sport, but it would be hard to match what Perry has done and the reputation he has built as the “Godfather,” of rowing.

“That was [former U.S. National Team coach Mike Teti’s] description of him,” said USRowing executive director Glenn Merry. “He’s the Godfather of rowing. He is the guy who, behind the scenes, has made things possible for us in this modern USRowing training center model.

“He’s reinvigorated the NRF, the donors of the NRF. He and I have worked some long hours over the past two years to bring the two groups together and have better communication. He’s a gentleman of the highest caliber and I’m not saying that lightly. Anyone who has worked with him has positive things to say.”

A finalist for the same FISA award last year, Perry began his rowing career at the Noble and Greenough School after struggling with baseball.

“I went there and I was on the fourth baseball team or something like that,” said Perry. “I had a great deal of difficulty getting the bat to meet the ball and the [baseball coach] said ‘well, maybe you ought to try another sport.’ They had crew and I had grown up with boats, so I went over and got involved. It’s been one thing after another ever since.”

After rowing for Noble and Greenough, Perry went to Dartmouth University, where he rowed two years as a lightweight until he could no longer make weight.

“I was not tall enough to do anything for the heavyweight boat, so I became the freshman lightweight coach in my junior year and the varsity lightweight coach my senior year. We had a pretty good run and went to Henley that year – the first lightweight team from Dartmouth to go to Henley.”

That was just the beginning of a series of firsts for Perry during his long career.

Following his last year at Dartmouth, Perry enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and while stationed in Hawaii, he coached at the Iolanni School.

After his discharge, Perry returned to coach at Dartmouth for two more years, but then turned his attention to junior rowing, where he eventually made his first major international contributions to the sport.

Perry coached the Kent School from 1961 to 1995 and during that time, brought several crews to compete in the high school championship at Henley, winning the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in 1972.

“That is a highlight that will always be up there for me,” said Perry.

According to Stewart MacDonald, a former national team coxswain who also coached at Kent, Perry was a dedicated coach and pioneer in junior rowing, both at the Kent School and internationally.

“His contribution to international rowing or America’s place in international rowing is a very long story,” MacDonald said. “Hart was involved in FISA’s junior sub-commission back from the early 70s.

“He was deeply immersed in FISA’s efforts in juniors long before the United States even had really a junior presence and in that sense, he was way ahead of his time. Junior rowing in the United States is now a very big deal and 40 years ago, it didn’t look that way and they could only have dreamed what it might become.”

Perry served on the FISA junior rowing committee until he retired in 1996.

MacDonald said that Perry’s involvement in FISA and junior rowing is only one part of the story of Perry’s dedication to rowing. He described Perry’s involvement in the Kent rowing program as “legendary.”
 
“The emphasis at Kent, he didn’t create it at Kent, but he certainly sustained it, was a focus on successful Kent rowing not really ending at the water’s edge,” he said.

Perry’s leadership in national and international rowing has been boundless. He has served as the president of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen, the predecessor organization to USRowing, and was and continues to be a major force in raising money for U.S. athletes to compete in international competition through the NRF.

Among his most recent notable accomplishments was leading the effort to establish the NRF Rowing Hall of Fame exhibit at the Mystic Seaport Museum.

“I think this award is very appropriate,” said Merry. “We’ve presented him with various USRowing awards, but I think it’s perfect.”

“He’s been a Henley steward for decades and worked with [regatta chairman] Mike Sweeney and a lot of the other international coaches and administrators through the Henley regatta. His service to rowing and moving things forward on an international platform for FISA and his being a voice for international affairs for the United States makes this really appropriate.”

Ed Moran

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