row2k Features
In Memoriam
Stuyvesant B. Pell
June 3, 2007

Stuyve Pell in his single on the Carnegie

Stuyvesant B. Pell, consistent first place medal winner in masters rowing races at local, national and international regattas for three decades, died June 3, 2007 at home. He was 75 and had lived in Princeton since 1964.

Mr. Pell spent his childhood on the campus of St. Andrew's School in Middletown, DE, where his father, the Rev. Walden Pell II, an Episcopal priest, was headmaster. He was born in Pittsfield, MA, where his mother's family had a home.

Mr. Pell attended the Rectory School in Pomfret, CT for a year before attending St. Mark's School in Southborough, MA, where he rowed for three years. After receiving his diploma in 1949 he went to Princeton University, he rowed with the 150-pound crew until spring break of his junior year when it was suggested he drop crew to pay more attention to his studies. He enlisted in the Marine Corps during his senior year and after graduating from Princeton in 1953, attended Officer Candidate's School in Quantico, VA.

Commissioned a 2nd lieutenant, later promoted to first lieutenant, Mr. Pell was assigned to Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, NC, where he served as commander of a heavy machine gun platoon that was part of a weapons company. His service also included a six month stint in the Mediterranean attached to the Sixth Fleet.

He was released from active duty with the Marines in September, 1955 and was married to Patricia C. Doom of Wilmington, DE the following April. Mr. Pell and his wife lived initially in Sandy Springs, GA, where he worked for the W.R. Bonsal Company, manufacturer of Sakrete and other cement products owned by his mother's family. After 13 months he joined Chubb & Son insurers and moved to Bronxville, NY with his wife. It was the beginning of a long and varied career in the insurance business carried out in Chubb offices in Seattle, New York and Philadelphia, among others.

The Pells lived on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound for four years before returning to the east coast in 1964 and settling in Princeton. Mr. Pell took early retirement in 1989 and began devoting his energies to various interests and endeavors, one of which was rowing. As a boy he had rowed a single on Noxontown Pond on the campus of St. Andrew's School. While living on Bainbridge Island, he had the use of a pre-war Pocock wherry (a wide, stable single shell) that he rowed in Puget Sound. He bought one of the first Pocock-built rowing boats that was not entirely made of wood and brought it to Princeton when he and his family moved east. It was the first of a series of single shells he owned and raced over the years.

At the time Mr. Pell was doing more running after work and on weekends than rowing, and as he developed endurance he began entering marathons. In all he ran eight full marathons ? his best time was 3:25 ? and innumerable half marathons and 10K races. A friend told him about masters rowing races for age 40 and over, and in 1976 at age 45 he borrowed a single shell and rowed his first Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. Despite not steering well on the unfamiliar winding course, he came in 23rd out of 33 entrants, and a new career of competing in racing shells of all different configurations was launched.

Over the years Mr. Pell placed first in his single at the Head of the Charles seven times and set the course record twice in his age group. He consistently won first place medals at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia and innumerable other head and sprint races along the east coast, the west coast and in Canada. In 1983 he won his first National Singles Championship in the Grand Master Class, and there were more to come. He competed in four or five FISA international masters races, including the FISA Masters Regatta held on Mercer Lake in September, 2006, winning his age group convincingly in the single. His strategy was to row hard at the start to get ahead of the competition and to stay ahead for the rest of the race.

Mr. Pell was a member and secretary of the Princeton University Rowing Association, a member of University Barge Club in Philadelphia and a founder and former trustee of Carnegie Lake Rowing Association in Princeton.

In addition to rowing, Mr. Pell devoted time and energy to volunteering with the Trenton After School Program. Working with small groups of elementary age children in one of Trenton's poorest neighborhoods, he developed a rapport with the youngsters as he helped them with their homework, especially math. A skilled builder of model airplanes and boats, he often brought his latest project to class to add to their learning experience.

Mr. Pell was a longtime member of Trinity Church, Princeton and a conscientious member of its Adult Choir. He was vice president and a trustee of the Fort Ticonderoga Association, a Pell family endeavor dating back to 1820 devoted to preserving, maintaining and operating the fort in upper New York state as an historic site open to the public.

Mr. Pell's wife Patricia died in 2003 and his older sister, Melissa Pell, in 1992.
He is survived by two daughters, Alison C. Pell of Snohomish, WA and Sarah B. Pell-Stires of Trenton; two sons-in-law, Michael Helms and Wayne Stires; three grandsons, James, Sam and Grayson Helms of Snohomish; a sister, Mary Leigh Whitmer of Fairfield, CT and Quogue, NY; and Louise G. Dunham, a good friend and companion.

A memorial service will be held Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 3:00 PM at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton; following the memorial service there will be a reception at the Princeton Universtiy Boathouse on Thursday, June 7th beginning at 4:30. Memorial contributions may be made to the Trenton After School Program, 801 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608; Fort Ticonderoga Association, Inc. Box 390, Ticonderoga, NY 12883; or Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton, NJ 08540.
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