Remembering June Madden

June Madden, a true friend of swimming and Missouri Valley Swimming, died November 28, 2003. Many people active in our sport today did not have the opportunity to work with June as I did over a number of years. I want to relate a little bit of history of June as I know it; however I met her long after she had given many hours to our sport as a parent and a volunteer. Her daughter, Pat Grzenda, furnished some of the early background information.

June was born in Minneapolis, MN. in 1925 and she married Jim Madden in 1941. June and her husband moved to the Kansas City area in 1962. Jim was with Motorola and traveled quite a bit. They had three children, one son and two daughters. The two daughters both swam. Pat started swimming in California before they moved here and both Pat and Mary swam at Leawood Country Club and at the Johnson County YMCA.

During the 60's and 70's both Jim and June worked as volunteers in swimming and the Missouri Valley AAU. Jim was President of the MVAAU and both were delegates to the National AAU conventions. June and Jim were co-meet directors for the National AAU Outdoor Long Course Swimming Championships held in 1975 in Kansas City KS. at Wyandott Pool.

I met Jim and June in 1976 when I first became involved in swimming outside my local swim club. Jim was still volunteering at the MV AAU level and June was a MV Referee and treasurer of the Competitive Swim Community of MVAAU. Sometime in that early period of my involvement I remember working as a stroke judge with June as referee at a summer meet at Homestead Country Club. I watched June write down the order of every finish, just in case one of the across the board judges missed one; we didn't have all the fancy timing equipment we do today, not even digital watches.

In the late 70's the Amateur Sports Act was passed which took control away from the National AAU and gave it to each Olympic sport to govern itself. While I heard of much grief and problems across the country, that did not happen in the Missouri Valley in a large part because we had people like June and Jim Madden and Richard Harkins.

My first exposure to Jim and June at the national level was when I attended the last National AAU convention with all the combined sports in 1979. Missouri Valley AAU had a hospitality room at the convention; swimming people from all over the nation overran it. June was there being sure that everyone was taken care of, and introducing anyone whom did not know the others. It was evident she was well known and liked across the country.

June served as the Missouri Valley Swimming treasurer from its inception until 1988. Jim had died in 1987 and June felt she should cut back on some activities. I would estimate that between 1979 and 1989 June probably served as a meet referee for at least 80 invitational and championship meets in the Missouri Valley. I know she served until 1990 as the referee for the Country Club Championships, and she was doing this meet when I took over the care of the timing system in 1978.

The last big swim meet that I know June attended was the NAIA National Championships held in Lawrence in March 2003. Her daughter Pat was a stroke judge and brought June to the meet. We had a seat reserved at the finish line for June. Next to her were some parents from one of the Kentucky schools. I asked them to watch out for June and keep her a seat for the next two nights of finals. They told me the last day of the meet that they really enjoyed visiting with June and she was quite an inspiration to them. Pat told me that one of the MVS referees who worked the meet was being introduced to June and the referee had said "I have an award from Missouri Valley that is called the June Madden award." June said very humbly, "Well, that’s me." The official comes back, "Wow, I thought you were dead." June just howled about that for weeks. The people who sat next to June asked me this past March if she was going to be at the meet. I had to tell them she had died, and they again expressed how much they enjoyed meeting and talking with her the year before.

At the visitation for June there were lots of old swimming friends and some who didn't know June but respected what she had done for our sport. One person, who was another recipient of the "June Madden Award", came to the visitation just to pay respects even though they had never met. June was buried next to her husband in Leavenworth National Cemetery. As I remember you have to pass the cemetery to get to the pool at Ft. Leavenworth.

I want to remember June as the woman on the deck in white, with clipboard and whistle, ready to start the race. She is one of the inspirations I have from MVS and was a great person to call my friend.

George Schluter