Stuart H. Walker

Stuart H. Walker

Personal information
Full name	Stuart Hodge Walker
Nickname	Stu
Nationality	United States
Born	(1923-04-19) April 19, 1923 Brooklyn, New York
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	70 kg (150 lb)
Sport
Retired	not
Sailing career
Class(es)	Star, Penguin, International 14, 5.5 Metre, Soling, Yngling, International One Design, Etchells and Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe
Club	Severn Sailing Association

Stuart H. Walker (born April 19, 1923) is an Olympic yachtsman, writer and a professor of pediatrics from the US. He has competed as a sailor at the Olympic Games; won many national and international championships in different classes; and published ten books.

Biography

Born in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York, Walker attended school in suburban Hartsdale and Bronxville, college at Middlebury College, and medical school at New York University. He was married to Frances (née Taylor) from 1944 until her death on September 30, 2012. They have two daughters Susan (1946) and Lee (1950). He and Frances lived in Western Australia for three periods, two of them of six months each: once in 1981–82, while on sabbatical leave, studying water balance in aboriginal children, and once as a reporter for several U.S. publications during the 1988 America's Cup at Fremantle. After Francis death in 2012 Stuart remarried with Patricia in spring 2013.

Walker was assigned in 1946 as a medical officer to the Army of Occupation of Japan (United States Army 11th Airborne Division (Paratroops)). After reassignment from the army, he started an pediatric practice in Annapolis in 1953. Stuart became a full-time Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1961 and was Chief of Pediatrics at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore until his retirement in 1984.

Walker was a member of every American team in international matches between 1961 and 1971 and was, in 1963, the first American to win Bermuda's Princess Elizabeth Trophy and, in 1964, England's Prince of Wales Cup. He was a member of the American Olympic Team, sailing a 5.5 Meter at the 1968 Games and the Pan-American Games, and a Soling in the 1979 Pan-American Games and the 2012 Vintage Yachting Games .

He is the author of ten books on sailboat racing, sail trim, competitive behavior, and low level wind flow, and is a lecturer and contributor to sailing magazines. He was the primary force in the founding of the Severn Sailing Association.

Walker was President of the International Soling Class from 1991 through 1994 . In this role he successfully campaigned to keep the Soling in the 1996 Olympics and to continue the fleet/match format. He also established a strong, well organized Technical Committee that included the major builders and which has been successful in openly recognizing and solving problems before they become significant. He travels on a yearly basis to Europe to compete in Soling regattas, where he regularly wins championships.

Palmarès

Sailing World Hall of Fame

Member 1982 – selected as one of the world’s twenty outstanding yachtsmen

1968 Olympics

8th U.S. Olympic Team – 5.5 Meter

Team Meteorologist

Vintage Yachting Games

5th 2012 Italy – Soling

1979 Pan American Games

Gold 1979 U.S. Pan-American Team – Soling

European Championship Soling

2nd 2011 Austria

National Championships in Soling

Winner 1973 Switzerland

Winner 2003 United States

Winner 1983 Switzerland

Winner 1987 Switzerland

Winner 1988 Austria

Winner 1988 Hungary

Winner 2003 Netherlands

Winner 2007 Scotland

International 14

Member U.S. International Teams 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969 and 1971

Winner 1961 Princess Elizabeth Trophy (1st American ever) – Bermuda

Winner 1962 Buzzard's Bay Bowl

Winner 1964 Prince of Wales Cup (1st American ever) – Lowestoft, United Kingdom

Winner 1966 Yachting Magazine's One-of-a-Kind Regatta

Soling

Winner 1973 Great Lakes Championship

Winner 1973 Maritime Provinces Championship

Winner 1974 Atlantic Coast Championship

Winner 1982 Australian Gold Cup Australia

Winner 1984 Erich Hirt Trophy Germany

Winner 1984 Jungfrau Trophy Switzerland

Winner 1985 Jungfrau Trophy Switzerland

Winner 1988 European Lakes Cup

Winner 1992 Erich Hirt Trophy Germany

Ice Bowl (Annapolis)

Winner 1955 – 2011 – (32 times out of 58)

Bibliography

Walker contributed to the sailing world by writing ten books on sports in general and on sailing specifically:

• The Techniques of Small Boat Racing OCLC 8003492
• The Tactics of Small Boat Racing ISBN 9780393308013
• Performance Advantages in Small Boat Racing OCLC 10881
• Wind and Strategy ISBN 9780393031362
• Advanced Racing Tactics ISBN 9780393031843
• Winning: The Psychology of Competition ISBN 9780393032550
• A Manual of Sailtrim ISBN 0393032965
• Positioning: The Logic of Sailboat Racing ISBN 0393033392
• The Sailors's Wind ISBN 9780393045550
• The Code of Competition ISBN 9780970357113

References

• Chivers, David (2007). Austin 'Clarence' Farrar (book). Shepperton: Bosun Publications. p. 206. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)

• Stuart H. Walker at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)