South Niagara Rowing Club honours 92-year-old veteran oarsman

He’s been on the water for eight decades, in search of the perfect stroke and he continues to inspire the next generation of rowers.

Dick Kendall was inducted into the South Niagara Rowing Club (SNRC) Wall of Fame at the 2022 Captain's Dinner, held in November.

Kendall, who is set to turn 93 this month, grew up in Buffalo, NY, not far from the esteemed West Side Rowing Club, but was steered clear of the water by a father who believed the sport would be too strenuous for his son.

Kendall didn’t begin honing his rowing skills until he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1947. While at Penn, his crew beat a highly favoured German boat to win the 1951 Thames Challenge Cup, an event for men's eights at the annual Henley Royal Regatta at Henley-on-Thames in England.

One of the most decorated rowers at the Head of the Charles in Boston (HOTC), the largest three-day regatta in the world, Kendall won the Veteran and Senior Veteran Single title a total of 13 times over a 15-year period. He still holds the current Senior Veteran Singles course record that he set back in 2010 over the three-mile distance.

Kendall has rowed the HOTC 23 times, but what is perhaps most impressive is that he achieved many of his rowing accolades after his deteriorating spinal column forced him to stop competing in marathon running.

An October 2011 article in the Boston Globe portrayed Kendall as man with a simple understanding of his lifetime passion.

“Rowing is a benign form of insanity,’’ he quipped, the writer adding that Kendall was “proud to consider himself among the game’s certified lunatic fringe.”

Kendall spoke of a certain respect among rowers.

“It’s a sport with a low jerk ratio,’’ he said. “That’s a big part of why I’ve stuck with it. Good people. We all know that the work has to be done to be successful. You get out of it what you put into it. No pain, no gain. It’s not an in-your-face game. It just doesn’t lend itself to jerks.’’

After he did some service in the army, Kendall returned to Buffalo and rowed at West Side from 1954 until 1962.

“We won nine lightweight national races, and 13 Canadian Henley golds,” he said.

Kendall’s family and work commitments kept him off the water for 19 years, a period when he embraced long-distance running, which eventually had to be curtailed due to spinal issues. The surgeons told him that his days as an athlete were over, but Kendall disregarded their counsel, and plunged back into rowing.

Throughout the summer season, Kendall is on the water most days, shuttling his single shell to the South Niagara Rowing Club on the roof rack of his compact car.

“I stopped competing at age 89, after my crew won gold in a quad at the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But after COVID, I realized that my strength had faded so badly that I wasn't going to be an asset in a boat any longer, so I only do recreational rowing now, just a silly sculler.”

Kendall lives on two acres on the outskirts of Ridgeway and Stevensville, where he Nordic skis in the wintertime.

“My wife, who is in her 50th year in the first violin section of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, imported me as a rare antique in 1986. And she still works to support me,” he chuckled.

Rowing is all about balance and timing, insists Kendall.

“When you get out on the water, you use all those little micro-muscles to balance the boat. When you finish up a training session, you have that glowing feeling. It helps keep me going.”