William Stowe (rower)

William Arthur "Bill" Stowe was an American rowing stroke. He won gold medals at the 1964 Olympics and 1967 Pan American Games, and a bronze medal at the 1965 European championships.

Early life

Stowe was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He graduated from Kent School in 1958 and Cornell University, class of 1962. After that he joined the U.S. Navy and was dispatched to Vietnam, where he rowed at the Club Nautique in Saigon. He returned from Vietnam as a lieutenant, and was stationed in Philadelphia, where he joined the Vesper Boat Club.

Later life

Stowe was the crew coach of Columbia University from 1967 to 1971 when he went to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to start the rowing program there. He was also the "color" commentator for ABC during the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games. Stowe wrote of his eight's experience in the 1964 Summer Olympics in the book All Together. In his final years, Stowe lived at the Olympic Village of Lake Placid, New York. In 2011 he received the Jack Kelly Award.