Friends Row On After Teammate’s Death, Leaving One Seat Empty
They referred to as themselves the 4 Horsemen.
For almost 20 years, Charlie Hamlin, Fred Schoch, Roger Borggaard and Chuck Pieper rowed collectively and have become buddies as they dominated races on the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, one of many world’s premier rowing competitions.
The boys began rowing as a workforce of their 50s. Tall and powerfully constructed, they have been achieved within the sport — notably Mr. Hamlin, who represented america within the 1968 Olympics and on the World Rowing Championships in 1969 and 1970.
The nickname was meant to be a joke. However to different rowers, the sight of the 4 Horsemen approaching the docks typically signaled sure doom on the water.
Over time, the boys positioned first repeatedly of their age group on the Head of the Charles, typically competing in an eight-person boat with 4 different rowers. In addition they dominated in a four-person boat at nationwide and worldwide championship races.
“We began knocking it off,” Mr. Borggaard, 76, stated. “We have been at all times within the hunt.”
On Sunday, the workforce will return to the Head of the Charles, however they don't count on to win this yr. Solely three of the horsemen will compete.
Mr. Hamlin, 74, died on Might 24, lower than a yr after he discovered he had Alzheimer’s illness.
Mr. Borggaard, Mr. Schoch and Mr. Pieper will depart one seat empty for Mr. Hamlin. In his place can be a plastic Viking hat that they had given to him as a present when he moved to Washington State in 2015.
Mr. Schoch stated the boys have been calling it a “row by,” just like a “fly by” of the “lacking man” formation executed by navy pilots to commemorate the lifeless.
“We’re household — there isn't any different method to put it,” stated Mr. Schoch, who's 71 and the manager director of the Head of the Charles Regatta. “We’re actually like brothers.”
Mr. Hamlin grew up in Chaumont, N.Y., and spent summers crusing on Lake Ontario. He started rowing in 1966 throughout his first yr at Harvard.
He raced within the Summer season Olympics in Mexico Metropolis in 1968 and continued to row competitively as he went to Harvard Enterprise Faculty, the place he met Mr. Pieper.
Each of them had married younger and bonded over elevating their households as they moved up within the enterprise world.
After Mr. Hamlin divorced his first spouse in 2000, he moved to England, the place he joined the Higher Thames Rowing Membership and raced all all through Europe, racking up medals.
He returned to Boston round 2004 and reunited with Mr. Pieper. Quickly, they teamed up with Mr. Borggaard and Mr. Schoch, who had met on the Cambridge Boat Membership and had been rowing collectively.
The boys would meet on the water each morning at 6. Within the winter, they educated indoors. Mr. Hamlin began a enterprise with Mr. Borggaard and Mr. Pieper, Cambridge Water Expertise, a start-up that they ultimately bought in 2012.
Off the water, Mr. Hamlin was quiet, keen to assist and liable to singing songs from musicals like “The Music Man” and “Oklahoma!” When he was in a ship, he was fiercely aggressive and would scream at his flagging teammates within the final stretch of the race, typically cursing.
“You’d be dog-tired and he’d scream: ‘Let’s go! Let it rip!’” recalled Mr. Borggaard. “Simply vitality popping out of him to make the remainder of us get carried away with the second and pull more durable.”
In 2015, Mr. Hamlin moved to Washington State together with his second spouse, Ellen Kennelly, an artist and rower whom he had met on the Cambridge Boat Membership. However he returned yearly to race within the Head of the Charles. In 2018, Mr. Hamlin had a coronary heart assault whereas rowing in Lake Whatcom, north of Seattle. The medical doctors warned him to decelerate, however he refused.
“There wasn’t any hesitation,” Mr. Hamlin told Row2K in 2018. “I’m not depressed. I’m not involved. It occurred. I made it by way of and again to life as regular.”
In 2019, the foursome raced once more within the regatta and got here in first place amongst rowers 70 years and older. They didn't understand it on the time, but it surely was the final time they'd compete collectively within the race.
In 2020, the regatta was canceled due to the pandemic. That very same yr, Mr. Hamlin and his spouse realized that he was turning into increasingly forgetful.
“He was doing so many issues in life that it was very regular for him to hurry out the door with out his laptop,” Ms. Kennelly, 58, stated.
However then the indicators that one thing was unsuitable turned extra obvious.
He had began battling numbers, an alarming improvement for a former account government. He couldn't bear in mind how you can strap down a ship.
When the medical doctors advised Mr. Hamlin that he had Alzheimer’s round Labor Day final yr, he started to consider how he wished to spend the remainder of his life, Ms. Kennelly stated.
Due to the pandemic, he was unable to go to his buddies abroad, however he was decided to spend time together with his two sons and grandchildren — and his finest buddies in New England.
In April, Mr. Hamlin returned to Boston for one final row on the Charles. As they ready to launch into the river, somebody handed Mr. Hamlin an oar.
Mr. Schoch recalled the confused look on Mr. Hamlin’s face.
“What am I alleged to do with this?” Mr. Hamlin stated.
It was a horrifying second that pressured his buddies to comprehend how shortly the illness had progressed.
Fortunately, the second handed shortly, Mr. Schoch stated.
“As quickly as he received within the boat he knew what to do,” he stated. “He fell in straight away as soon as he had his mates to comply with.”
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