From Cheryl Wagner of the Terrapin Masters club:
It is with great sadness that I tell you that Debbie Morrin-Nordlund passed away today. She was 51 years old. I first met Debbie in 1993 when I joined Terrapin Masters. She was one of the original lunch-time Terrapin Masters swimmers at University of Maryland College Park. She quickly joined the Potomac Valley LMSC board (and talked me into joining) and served ever since. She also served as Colonies Zone chair and on numerous committees at the national USMS level. She was a tireless promoter of USMS and an accomplished open water swimmer having completed the Snake River Swim, the Chesapeake Bay Swim, the Lake Tahoe Swim and numerous East Coast ocean swims. She was my friend for over 20 years and inspired me to try the Chesapeake Bay swim in 1993. I will miss her. --Cheryl Wagner
Debbie was the current sanctions chair for the Potomac Valley LMSC and a member of the USMS Legislation Committee. She was a fixture at the annual USMS convention. My condolences go out to her husband, Eric Nordlund.
Anna Lea Matysek
Did Deb and Eric meet through Masters Swimming?
Yes. They met at the 1997 USAS convention in Burlingame (San Francisco). Eric was a delegate from Michigan. A few years later they married and Eric moved from Michigan to Maryland.
Attached is a picture of the PV delegates from that 1997 convention (L-R: Dave Diehl, Deb, Rob Whitters, Lynn Hazlewood, Jeff Roddin).
When I first became a Potomac Valley officer in 1995, Debbie was already an active board member. I don't know when she first became a PV board member, but looking through some archives I see that she was the PV Awards Chair in 1993 and had been a PV board member every single year since then. After serving as PV Awards Chair, she was the PV Top Ten Chair, then the PV Chair, then PV Secretary, PV Chair again and like Anna Lea said above, was the current PV Sanctions Chair. In addition to serving on the PV board she was the current Colonies Zone Vice Chair (and was previously the Chair), was on the Legislation committee, had been the Chair of a USMS National Committee (Marketing) and had attended the annual USAS conventions as a PV delegate for about 20 years. Debbie was always quick to volunteer for anything that was needed at the LMSC level as well as the USMS National level. Debbie was devoted to PV/USMS and our organization is greatly improved because of her tireless efforts over the past couple decades.
Debbie was also as kind of an individual as you will ever meet and she will be deeply missed. My thoughts go to Eric during this extremely difficult time.
Jeff Roddin
Potomac Valley
PS. I just found this link with more biographical information:
www.usms.org/.../articledisplay.php
In case anybody is interested, the obituary is posted on the funeral home website:
www.farleysullivan.com/.../obituary.php
It contains the following statement about donations:
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations in memory of Debbie Morrin-Nordlund be given to the University of Maryland's Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences Graduate Program where Debbie worked tirelessly for over 17 years, helping thousands of students achieve their educational goals. Checks made out to "UMCPF" can be sent to Andrea E. Morris, c/o MEES, 2300 Symons Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
