Gerry Ashworth

Gerald Howard "Gerry" Ashworth (born May 1, 1942 in Haverhill, Massachusetts to Earl Ashworth)

Gerry was born one of three children on May 1, 1942, to Gladys Brown Ashforth and Earl Ashforth in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His father, who was originally from nearby Lawrence, was a manufacturer for shoe products, and after purchasing his first shoe company in Maine at age 20, he eventually owned a number of shoe manufacturing companies operating in Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. Active in the community, Earl had been a President of Temple Emmanuel in Haverhill, and the Haverhill Country Club, before retiring to Sarasota, Florida with his wife Gladys in 1974. In 1964, the couple donated the first electronic timing device ever used at Dartmouth's Leverone Field House, which electronically displayed both scores and electronic times to spectators.

Early track career

Ashworth began his track career as a Freshman at Haverhill High School under Coach Charlie White, and then around his junior year transferred to the Holderness School in Plymouth N.H., a private college preparatory school where he acquired the academic skills required for the challenges of Dartmouth College which he would attend after graduation. While competing in High School Track, he ran a noteworthy 9.9 seconds in the 100-yard dash, but the North's cold weather may have kept him from competing with the nation's best, and from being noticed by top track schools outside the Northeast.

Dartmouth track highlights

At Dartmouth, he studied Engineering Science and Economics. On April 22, 1962, as a Junior, he broke the Dartmouth record for the 220 yard dash with a time of 21.2 seconds. When as a Junior at Dartmouth, he ran a winning 100-yard time of 9.4 seconds in the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships around May 12, 1962,

Still plagued by occasional injury in his Senior year at Dartmouth, he was unable to compete in the National Championships but showing remarkable resilience, was nearly undefeated in both indoor and outdoor collegiate meets. Though suffering injuries that affected his performance, he competed and won races against top professionals in indoor meets at such venues as Madison Square Garden. In his final year at Dartmouth, he was elected Captain of the Track team. Not long after graduating Dartmouth in 1963, he was invited to join the Striders Running Club in the Los Angeles area, and he moved there to train with the club. He set the World record for the 100 Yard dash, 9.4 s, in 1962, and showing consistency, matched his record again in 1964 after graduating Dartmouth.

In the 1963 Pan American Games, he was an alternate in the relay but did not get the opportunity to compete, and a few press accounts considered him inexperienced in relay competitions. An injury while running in Brazil may also have hampered his chances of participating in the Games as a relay member. Trent Jackson qualified with a second place 10.2 seconds, but he was later cut from the relay due to an injury while running a race in Tokyo on October 15, only a week before the relay finals, cementing Ashforth's place on the 4 × 100 m relay team.

1964 Olympic gold medal, 4 × 100 m relay

thumb|left|125px|Hayes, 1962

In his most noteworthy career accomplishment, he ran the second leg of the gold medal performance of the American 4 × 100 m relay team at the Tokyo Olympics, on October 21, 1964, setting a new world record of 39.06. Paul Drayton, Richard Stebbins and Bob Hayes ran the other legs. After receiving his handoff from the starter Drayton, Ashworth's performance in the straightaway was adequate but his exchange to Stebbins was less effective, and the Americans were not leading. Stebbins gave the baton to Hayes at the beginning of the handoff lane rather than near the end, requiring Hayes to run an additional ten meters. Hayes's speed was invaluable in leading the American team to the gold, taking the American relay team from around fifth to first place and securing the gold medal. Impressively, Hayes may have completed one of the top ten fastest Olympic relay times for an anchor leg, as it was hand-timed between 8.5 and 8.9 seconds, though the time never became official.

1965 Maccabiah Game gold medals

With a total 40,000 in attendance, Ashworth ran in the 1965 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Israel in late August, winning a gold medal in the 400 m relay, with a time of 42.4 seconds, shaving .6 of a second off the old record. Ashforth also won the 100-meter dash in 10.6 seconds, taking a gold and beating Raoul Solomon of France by three feet. The Americans took 75 gold medals, the most of any country, with Israel second at 31 golds.

Life after track

Ashworth was a 1963 graduate of Dartmouth College. Not long after the Maccabiah Games, he married Jeanne Leslie Oshry at Boston's Hotel Somerset in August 1965, before moving to Cambridge, where his wife would teach school in Boston and he would begin his studies at Harvard Business School.

Using his education in engineering science and business management, he served as President of General Metals and Smelting, in Andover, Massachusetts, which specialized in scrap metal, commodity brokering, lead casting, and long-distance trucking. Andover was not far from his former home in Haverhill. He had two sons with wife Jeanne, and enjoyed summering in Maine.

References

External links

Biography , International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
Former Olympian from Maine recalls gold medal experience , Seacoast Online, Aug 14, 2008