The following remarks were made by Jim Carr ’62 P’91 at the memorial service held June 27, 2016 for Dean Tom Edwards.
Gloria, Ann, Nancy and Tom; Members of the Kenyon family:
I have been asked, and have the honor, to call to mind Tom Edwards as a coach.
I’ll start with telling you about Tom Edwards, the great recruiter: Coach Edwards and I first met on a lovely spring Saturday in May, 1958, during pre-freshman weekend. By the appointed time of 3:30 p.m. I found my way to the rather grand eloquently named Shaffer Natatorium to meet Kenyon's swimming coach. Coach Edwards was in his office, and said he'd be with me in a couple of minutes. Waiting, I looked at the board with College, conference and pool records. Though not much of high school swimmer, my times were better than a couple of marks up on that board.
I began feeling rather full of myself — My head might have started swelling a bit...
Coach Edwards came from his office and introduced himself. As, you all well recall, Coach Edwards was not one to tarry long with conversational warm-ups, within a couple of minutes, he asked, "What are your times?"
I told him. (Aside — I may have tossed a nod in the direction of the record board...)
Looking me square in the eye, he responded: "If you're that slow in the 100, you can't be that fast in the 200." And turned away back into his office.
Halfway back up the path, I turned, pointed my finger, leaned forward and (I paraphrase a bit) said: "I'm going to come back and show you, you bald headed so-and-so." You'll agree, I'm sure, that Tom, at that moment, knew exactly what I would be saying in reply.
Our first meet was in December in Ann Arbor at the Big Ten Relays, an invitational event. There we swam beside — well, behind — the best, swimmers from Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan, and ahead of those from the other two teams, Western Ontario and another school like us.
Why did we go? Coach, I'm sure, wanted to know what the best was. Coach was there, I was to come to learn, because of the esteem that Doc Councilman of Indiana — then the dean of American swimming — had for Tom. That was so because Tom was in the forefront of coaches applying theories of how a body moves through water to training and workouts. Tom Edwards was there because the best coaches in the country considered him their peer, and took advice from him.
During each season, which ended in early March with Kenyon's eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh OAC championships, we spent more time in the pool than in our classrooms (and not because we cut any of those).
What we learned from Tom's teaching mattered more, and stayed with us longer, than all that we gained, as much as it was, from so many other splendid Kenyon teachers. Classroom instructors look into our minds and see what is lacking, and what is needed to make those minds more open, more critical, more capable. A coach sees into our hearts, knows what is missing and what to do to help us make them whole, more strong, to prepare us to meet straight on what lies ahead.
All our teachers, whatever the venue — classroom, laboratory, stage or studio or field, court or pool — train us, make us more fit for life to come. This is the essence of education as a student athlete. And Tom Edwards was its early and lifelong champion.
In time, the College called Tom away from coaching, asking him to apply his manifold skills and commitment to it and its students, and the well-being of both, to help shape Kenyon into what it has become. Among so much else, Kenyon today is a college where those who coach its teams work side by side with their classroom counterparts. Together, they sharing equally a common mission.
Kenyon indelibly touches our minds and our hearts. It does so because of the demands made, the expectations raised, and the encouragement and guidance given by all its teachers, academic and athletic.
For me, Tom’s teaching began the moment when, seeing and sizing me up at a glance, he recruited me, so ably challenged me, and turned his back and walked away, offering to let me follow him. I'm glad I did — glad that I, in turn, turned toward him, pointed my finger, and told that bald headed so-and-so I'd show him.
I close with a few words about someone else who played her role in all that Tom did for us all. For four years Mrs. Edwards was next to coach in the two seats at the front of the college bus, together and apart from but still riding along with us. Mrs. Edwards was beside him when we won, and with him when we lost and had let him down. In that memory is a metaphor. Gloria was next to Tom, and with him for more than sixty years. She was the one there when he had made, or had to make, the worst calls anyone can ever make to a parent. Only Tom knew what that meant to him. We can but imagine how she strengthened him — and shared too the glad moments of his success — whether in a meet or at a meeting.
Kenyon was fortunate to have Tom Edwards.
Tom was fortunate to have Gloria.
As, through him and all that he endured and did for us all, we too are fortunate that Gloria was at Tom's side all along the way.
Thank you.