The Forgotten Four

"My association with the Midd crew began when I saw a notice Phil Busse had posted about an organizational meeting. At the time, I was a grad student at Harvard working toward my Ph.D in folklore, but spending most of my time in a wherry on the Charles trying to row, making gravestone rubbings, and learning to play squash. I'm still not sure which of these I pursued with more intensity. I contacted Phil to ask him if he had a place to launch a boat and invited him to do so from my property on Lake Dunmore, North Cove Cottages. Soon after, he arrived with a leaky wooden pair that was stored alongside my house. The following year, the pair had given way to a leaky wooden 8 and the crew was off and running. Every morning at 6, my dog, Dylan, would announce the arrival of crew members, who tiptoed down to the lake. The front of my house looked like a Saab showroom, since that was apparently the official crew car. As the crew acquired more boats, including the wooden Dylan Dog, getting down to the water became a circuitous route, zigzagging between boat racks spread out all over the lawn. The first crew parents' weekend picnic took place on the lawn as parents tried their hands at rowing. After a number of years, it became obvious that the crew had outgrown the lawn and it moved to more spacious accommodations." -Karen Rockow

To current and former rowers alike, our home at Lake Dunmore is more than just the water we row on. Still today, Karen Rockow looks out her window at the 8s passing by in the late fall and spring afternoons. After 30 years, seeing the boats on the water gives her the same feeling as she had at the first launch. Without Karen and her incredible generosity, we would be without one of the most unique parts of Middlebury Crew.