John Curtis Glover, 1933-1956

He came up from New York to New Haven that bright June day with his college years behind him and a newworld ahead. Three days before, he'd received his Master of Business Administration degree from Tuck School. The previous year he'd been commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and was due to go on duty at Mitchel Field, N. Y., in mid-June, although the Air Force had given him leave to train for a possible berth on the U. S. Olympic swimming team.

He arrived in New Haven about 11 o'clock, went directly to the PayneWhitney Pool at Yale, the scene during the past four years of so many of the records he had established. Twenty minutes later John Curtis Glover '55 doubled over in the water at the shallow end of the pool and quietly died from what was later diagnosed as a ruptured pancreas. He was just three months short of 23 on that June 6th day.

Death came in that element which John knew and loved so well. He'd been swimming since he was three years old, had swum competitively since he was seven, had won Ail-American High School swimming honors at Mamaroneck (N. Y.) High and a place on the collegiate All-American Swimming Team for three years. He captained both the Dartmouth freshman and varsity swimming teams and was by all odds the most outstanding swimmer and one of the finest young athletes Dartmouth ever claimed as a son.

Twice winner of the Watson Athletic Trophy at Dartmouth, John Glover established a total of 53 individual records in the 50, 100 and 220-yard freestyle events and in the 150-yard individual medley event. He tied eight other records and contributed, as a member of the Dartmouth team and New York Athletic Club team, to six other new marks, for a total of 67. His records were set in every event on the swimming program except backstroke, breaststroke and dive.

Only three months before his death Glover had won the Senior Men's 220 yard freestyle title in the Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union Championships. In March of 1955, his senior year, Glover had won the Eastern Intercollegiate 50-yard freestyle championship, breaking the meet mark of 0:22.5 in the semi-final heat and lowering his own record in the finals with a clocking of 0:22.3. The next day he added the 100-yard freetstyle title and on April 2 won the same event in the NAAU Meet. These races were all held in the Payne-Whitney Pool where Glover died and of which he once said, "Psychologically, this is a great pool for me."

Only last summer Glover, the son of W. Curtis Glover '18, was one of three American swimmers who went to Europe on a State Department good-will tour, visiting and competing against Europe's best swimmers in such places as Helsinki, Athens, Rome, Istanbul and Munich. He won all his races.

College officials from President Dickey down voiced their shock at the news of John Glover's death. But amidst the quotations it was Karl Michael, Dartmouth swimming coach, tutor and personal friend to John Glover, who put the only answer possible. "What can I say?" asked Karl. 'Words aren't adequate for what you feel at a time like this." He stood for a moment in the bright June sun by the Hanover Inn corner, and watched a group of students walking by. "I just don't know what to say. Words won't do it." Then he walked slowly away and you knew that with him, as with Dartmouth, John Glover would always be a remembered part.

John Glover with Coach Karl Michael.