Paul Fortoul, 1958-2007

Long-time attendees of the USMS annual convention received some bad news yesterday. Paul Fortoul of the Metropolitan LMSC passed away Saturday at the age of 49. With immeasurable sadness, the Board of the Metropolitan Local Masters Swim Committee Inc. announce the passing of Coach Paul Fortoul on Saturday December 8, 2007 from rapid onset complications of a serious illness diagnosed a few months ago. A swimming polymath of the first magnitude, he was a constant presence in both the METROPOLITAN Local Swim Committee (LSC) and the Local Masters Swim Committee (LMSC) as well as the national governing bodies for more than three decades as a coach, official, Board member, committee chair, delegate, national relay coordinator, meet director, timing system operator and athlete. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame. He deeply affected the athletes he coached in Masters programs at Asphalt Green, Team New York Aquatics, Red Tide, West Side YMCA, the YWCA (1999-2005) and many individuals of many affiliations. He also did similarly with the age group programs of Fieldston School, AGUA, the New York Aquatic Club and many others. No one understood, able to cite chapter and verse of every aquatic sport rule book, the intricacies of swimming rules, statistics, by-laws and policies better than Paul. In a unseen and unheralded effort of enormous dimension, he made all of us safer as we swam and our leaders more accountable with his shark-like instincts of how procedures should and must be followed for fairness and safety to prevail. Few have served the swimming community in our area and in the gay/*** aquatics movement in such an enduring way. His spirit now prowls the deck of many, many pools, arriving probably even now, as he often did, in a hurry, with an impossibly bulging briefcase, but quickly deploying himself, stopwatch in hand, workout in mind, *** pocket stuffed with pens and notes to self, sporting under combed hair and with glasses perched askew on his nose, reminding us, exhorting and inspiring us, with utter equanimity to all swimmers, big and small, slow and fast, young and old to reach our potential as athletes and maybe, if we thought about it, to do the same as human beings. I began attending the USMS convention in 1993. It was hard to miss Paul. In the House of Delegates meetings, he was the guy wearing the fly-fishing vest and carrying a camera. When he participated in debates at the microphone he was usually quoting some sort of swimming rule. In 2001 I swam in the IGLA Championships in Toronto. I was surprised to see Paul there, as well as a number of other people I had seen at conventions. The USMS convention is held in conjunction with the conventions of the four other aquatic governing bodies (USA Swimming, USA Water Polo, USA Diving, USA Synchronized Swimming). The last night of the convention, Saturday night, there is always a big awards banquet for all five of the governing bodies. The banquet is held in a large hotel ballroom and is attended by probably 1,000 people. That fall, at the USMS convention, Paul and I talked about how many of the USMS delegates had been at the Toronto meet that past summer. We came up with the idea of assembling an "IGLA table" at the banquet so we could all visit with each other. Paul took the lead on tracking everyone down in time to reserve a table. Everyone had such a good time that the tradition of the "IGLA table" has continued. Paul wasn't at the last couple of conventions, but he would have been happy to know that now there are two "IGLA tables", as one is no longer enough to hold everyone! Anna Lea