Truthfully, a return visit to Henley had little or no bearing on our decision to visit England in the summer of 1989. Our daughter Sara had been selected for a course of study at Oxford University, a program that was scheduled to begin with an orientation for students and parents on Monday, July 10. Alice and I couldn't resist visiting her, especially since we had lived in England from early 1974 through 1978, and we looked forward to visiting friends and neighbors that we hadn't seen for over ten years.

Only later did it dawn on me that July 10 might fall immediately after Henley Week. Indeed it did, for the Henley Royal Regatta (HRR) is always scheduled for the first full week in July. (Do those of you who rowed at Henley in 1962 remember our taping that tiny American flag on our bow on July 4, the first day of competition?)  Not only did our 1989 visit coincide with Henley Week, we soon learned that the HRR would be celebrating its 150th Anniversary and that there would be a number of special events for the occasion. Imagine a sports event that, except for two brief intermissions during the First and Second World Wars, had been staged continuously every year since 1839!

We used the dart board method to select a hotel in Burnham, a location that was equally convenient, more or less, to Oxford, Henley and London, where we had tickets to see “Cats. The Burnham Beeches Hotel is a place that will become very familiar to all twenty-two of us who are convening there on July 5, 2007, for the 45th Reunion of the MIT Lightweight Crew's 1962 participation in the HRR. (I, for one, can't wait!). Here's how the Burnham Beeches looked in 1989.

The Regatta came first in Alice's and my itinerary, as Sara and the other students were not arriving at Oxford until July 9, following two weeks of travel throughout England. We arrived in Henley-on-Thames on Friday by train and walked across the bridge to the spectator side of the river. We were standing just about here—looking over the docks of the Leander Rowing Club toward the Finish Line....

....when a most amazing, incredible thing happened. I said to Alice, "That man over there looks a lot like Gary Zwart."  And Gary it was, a Gary who was just as surprised as we were when we made eye contact. Gary had been my rowing coach during my Freshman, Junior and Senior years at MIT, the coach that had led us to Henley in 1962. As Alice and I would soon learn, Gary had taken one more crew to Henley, in 1969, the year that he retired from a fabulously successful career as MIT's lightweight rowing coach. Gary and Ann Zwart were at Henley in 1989 for the 20th Reunion of his last Henley crew.

As it turned out, two of the members of the Class of '69 had to return home early, so Gary presented Alice and me with a pair of entrance badges to the Stewards' Enclosure. Our Henley visit was to be far more upscale than we had planned, as we had anticipated just picnicking along the banks of the Thames at the midpoint of the course as we had done with our then-small children during those years in the 1970s when we lived nearby.

Gary had been my role model during my four years at MIT. I can't begin to reiterate how much he taught me by demonstrating leadership, ethics and determination to be the best at whatever challenges one decides to take on—such as, in those days, beating Harvard in rowing.  I continued to hang around the boathouse during my two years in graduate school at MIT and spent many an afternoon in the coach's launch with Gary.  However, Alice and I moved from the Boston area to Pennsylvania in 1972. After that, I lost contact with Gary, especially when we moved again, this time to England in 1974. As best as I can recollect, we hadn't seen Gary in over fifteen years. This made our chance meeting in 1989 all the more special. We enjoyed the Regatta together, had dinner in one of the nearby Thames-side restaurants and all-in-all, had a great visit. Since 1989, I have tried to do a better job of staying in touch.

Here are Alice, on the left, and Ann in the outdoor area of the Stewards' Enclosure, with Gary looking on in the next row:

The last time I had been in the Stewards' Enclosure had been in 1962 when, as Regatta participants, we were all given tickets. In this 1962 photo, I was in the covered part of the grandstand as the Russian Navy crew defeated the Italian champions, Moto Guzzi, in the finals of the Grand Challenge Cup.

It was immediately apparent to me in 1989 that Henley is timeless. Here is a photo of the grounds and the enclosed portion of the Stewards' Enclosure in 1989. I don't think a blade of grass had changed since 1962. Certainly, Henley traditions had not changed—the Dress Code, the afternoon Tea Breaks, when all racing comes to a halt.  It is as if time stands still in this very, very British corner of the world. I hope to illustrate this to family and friends and especially to those of us who are making the trip in July during the next few chapters of this memoir, written 18 years after my last visit to Henley.

Several other scenes from the HRR, July 1989:
   - the ever-colorful spectators, undaunted by the frequent rain showers...

The University of Pennsylvania Heavyweight Eight...

 

The Oldest Living Henley Alum...

Tailgate parties, Henley style...

Yours truly at the Burnham Beeches, probably the last time he was able to fit into his 1962 MIT Blazer: