Vince Herring
Let’s start with an article about Vince that appeared in the Post Bulletin, written by Paul Christian on Feb. 20, 2013, 2 days after his funeral: The headline Swimming Enthusiast and so much more:
A goal was always a goal.
And a challenge, always a challenge.
And always a story to tell. Every day, Vince Herring would tell a story, and he had thousands to pick from.
And without fail, Vince Herring always had a joke on the tip of his tongue, and they were all clean ones. You had no trouble repeating them to your 6-year-old son or daughter.
Last Thursday was no different His goal – and challenge – was to swim – was to swim 314,000 yards (178 miles) as part of a world wide February Fitness Challenge.
Like clockwork, Herring was up early, and swam for more than two hours at the Recreation Center. He then drove to the Rochester Athletic Club where he planned to swim for two or three more hours.
He was getting close to his goal: he was more than halfway way home (178,00 yards) for his fitness challenge.
But when he arrived at the RAC, he didn’t feel very well and decided to skip his workout. Now if you knew Vince, skipping a workout was like a solar eclipse. It doesn’t happen very often.
Later that day at home – Valentine’s Day – Herring collapsed and died. It was a his 70th birthday.
Vince Herring grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts where he swam in high school. He swam in college while pursuing degrees in education other areas.
Eventually Vince ending up coaching the Worchester Sea Lions. One of the team’s traditions was getting together for team dinners with meals prepared by a local restaurant where he met his wife, Mary who managed the restaurant. It was love at first bite. Dating was interesting as Vince did not own a car at that time, only a motorcycle. However that did not deter them from marrying 10 months after they met.
Mary was from Minnesota and after they married they eventually moved to Minnesota to be near Mary’s family. Vince continued to swim while earning more degrees in Education at Winona State University. Finding a job was tough and their first home was a mobile home. However, subbing got his foot into the door and a full-time teaching position led to coaching swim teams. He met a fellow teacher, David Arlander, and talked Dave into joining Masters Swimming!
So began Vince’s 40 years of Master’s Swimming with his last 21 years in Rochester as a member of the Rochester Swim Club Masters.
Mary learned early in her marriage that Vince liked to get into the water to workout at least once a day, but usually worked out twice a day. Though at that time there were indoor and outdoor swimming pools in Rochester, he preferred ponds, lakes, rivers. However, when given a chance he preferred the challenges of swimming in large lakes and the ocean even when he had other challenges like throwing up during the particularly long marathon type events. And, more often than not, his post swimming recovery time involved spending a few hours or more in the bathroom getting rid of any remaining water he digested out of his system!!
His favorite workout was centered around lots of yardage….the more, the merrier. If he did not like the workout, he was fond of saying “as a Masters swimmer you can just say no!” and change his workout to lots of yardage. On his birthday, which was Valentine’s day, Vince liked to swim his age times 100 yards. If it wasn’t his birthday, several sets of 10 x 100 on a 1:30 or 1:40 interval would be swum!
Vince had many accomplishments…if time permitted I would review all of them with you, but that would take all night and the other inductees need their time in the spotlight. However, I want to mention that many of his swims outside of the United States involved places where Mary and Vince enjoyed side trips to holy sites, often bringing back artifacts to display in their garden.
Vince was a “go to man” when funds were raised to build an indoor 50 meter pool in Rochester, one of the first in the state, as part of the Rochester Recreational Center.
I have barely touched the surface in outlining all of Vince’s accomplishments as a person, a coach, a swimmer, a naturalist, and humanitarian. I could spend another hour telling stories about the impact he had on the swimming community and the humor that always surfaced! If you have time this evening, please take a moment to view the posters with details about his passion for swimming.
So I will close by saying, “Congratulations to Dave, Tom, and Bubba. Vince would have had a great time celebrating this evening with all of you!”
See additional information about Vince (pdf)
