Vesper Boat Club is sorry to report the death of Todd Craun on Monday, January 26th. He was a longtime member of the club, as well as a member of the board and an assistant coach of the elite program. There will be a gathering for family and friends at Vesper on Friday, January 30, from 10A - noon. A fund has been set up in Todd's memory; memorial donations may be made to the Todd Craun Elite Athletes' Fund and sent to Vesper at Vesper Boat Club, 10 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130.
Vesper coach Michiel Bartman is putting together remembrances of Todd for the service and for his family, if anyone would like to add to it. Following is a remembrance by Ted Nash:
I have known Todd since the very early 1970's when I recruited him for Univ. of Penn. We remained good friends even when he later attended Brown Univ. and raced against Pennsylvania. Todd was a leader at Brown as captain.
Later I called on him to help us with his legal expertise in several women's rights issues to accelerate the development of women's rowing opportunities leading to the 1976 Montreal Olympiad where women's racing was first introduced as an Olympic event.
Todd was a gentle and patient father and family man, as well as, coach at Vesper Boat Club. He represented us all at conventions as delegate.
His understanding and enduring efforts to help new rowers was known all over the Schuylkill Navy Rowing Community.
Todd and I roomed together several times at International Regattas where we both had crews on the USA team. He often would talk all night about his teams and his love of coaching.
Todd would often ride in my launch and observe our workouts and film them. In fact, he would coach our crews if I had to go out of town. He helped all coaches with their teams and crews should the coach become ill. His suggestions were always valuable and astute. Todd served many businesses connected to rowing as an expert environmental resource and helped craft dredging plans and building code schedules.
One of Todd's crews won in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the International Regatta on the Bosbaan Race course. That eight-oared victory was later seen as a major upset Gold medal win for Vesper Boat Club. Todd's daughter rowed in that crew.
Todd Craun will always be remembered as an intelligent and helpful friend to everyone he ever met. He was generous with his time. No problem was too small for Todd. His ideas, professional knowledge, and a desire to help young people enjoy the sport of rowing were the honest and simple rules he lived by.
Respectfully, Ted A. Nash