Doc rose to become the ESA's Executive Director in 1972 after only a few years involvement with the New England District. For those who knew him, it wasn't surprising. Doc was one of the most talented people I ever met. He was very smart, he worked harder and longer than anyone else, and he would have been a success at anything he set his mind to. His early interests were law and he served as a Congressional Intern in Washington, D.C. during college. He could have been a successful corporate lawyer or a dedicated public defender. He could have been a skillful politician. Everyone knows he got plenty of practice at both. But instead he chose medical school and the field of psychology, eventually running a large health care organization in Boston, MA.
Fortunately for the ESA, Doc chose to devote his substantial talents to surfing and making the ESA something special and different in the world of surfing. Doc had the amazing ability to attract talented people, nurture them, delegate jobs to them and then sit back and let them run. He always knew intuitively where he wanted the ESA to go on any given issue and his work ethic and dedication inspired those around him to perform at their highest level towards his goals which became the goals of the organization. He was part friend, part father figure, part benevolent dictator and his vision, philosophy and plain hard work brought the ESA from a small surfing club of 300 members to the leading surfing organization in the world, with over 2000 members at the time he passed away. Today the organization boasts over 6,000 members, part due to what he did, how he thought, and the values he instilled in the organization. To this day, the ESA is something special in the world of surfing and different from every other organization currently in operation. Doc was an original, one-of-a-kind individual and one of the truly important figures in the history of surfing.
While the ESA, like every competitive surfing group, is primarily concerned with running surf contests, in Doc's mind the organization was about much more. It was important to him that the ESA not only offer "kids" (whether they were 10 or 60) the best organized, most fair competitive experience possible, but also that it support its members and protect the intangibles that make surfing such a special and magical thing.
At a time when money, the media ratings, and generally "being cool" threatened to turn surfing and surfers into commodities to be bought and sold like sugar or oil, Doc made it his business to keep the ESA focused on what was really important about surfing; the kids, the environment, working hard for surfing, having a great time with friends and always trying to do the best he could to help others. In his mind, being the best surfer was nowhere near as important as being the best person; giving of yourself for others for no reason other than that it was the right thing to do.
The things Doc did were mind-boggling. While running a large health care service on a part-time basis, he also spent countless hours on ESA business for seventeen years. He thought nothing of loading his foster boys and his dog in to one of his vans and driving to Florida for a contest or to California to harangue and embarrass the surfing industry into shelling out money. He could put 100,000 miles on the odometer without breaking a sweat, and he didn't really drive the cars - he punished them. When the phone would ring at 11 p.m. you knew who was on the other end of the line. I can still hear his gravelly voice "Hey Mike…is it too late…?" And you felt that if it wasn't too late for him, how could it be too late for you?
In addition to growing the ESA into a great organization, he served as USSF President from 1979 to 1988, establishing an uneasy but workable alliance which created the first true national surfing program in America.
