A wonderful tribute

Went to Philly this weekend to a 30th anniversary celebration of our long time friend Charlie Kennedy's swim coach tenure at Suburban Swim Club. My wife grew up swimming with him and I have known him for 35 years. He was a double major Phi Beta Kappa grad of U of Iowa, while swimming. He is an accomplished musician. He says he received a calling to be  swim coach. He has been underpaid and seemingly under-appreciated for all these years. Last night however he was feted by the friends he swam with and several generations of swimmers. The  cool thing was the  unintentional common theme that the 6 or 7 speakers brought out about him. That is that, while he is a great swim coach, swimming is only the vehicle that he uses to help his kids become better people. The final speaker was Brendan Hansen, 3 time Olympic team captain and holder of 7  medals. He credited Charlie with keeping him in swimming when he wanted to quit after failing to make the 2000 team as a high schooler by .02 seconds in 2 different events. Charlie told him that it isn't how you react to success that defines your life, but how you react to failure and disappointment. Brendan says that this thought is the key motivator in his life, as well as his subsequent swimming success. The club named the pool after him and made a nice contribution to his underfunded retirement fund. The coolest thing was that his parents were there to feel the warmth. His Dad, who is an alzheimers sufferer had a lucid night, completely got what was happening and broke down from his joy several times (as most of us did). And when someone said that he must feel really good about it, answered that, oh no, this is about Charlie, not me.

Charlie is the closest thing I know to pure good. Last night  I learned that many others believe that too, and Charlie, as humble a guy as anyone on earth, can't deny it any longer. What a cool night.