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Richard I. Stearns, Profiles of Star Champions

Richard I. Stearns (Starlights, April, 1970)

Dick Stearns returning to Chicago after winning the Gold Star In 1962.

It is difficult to think of anyone in the Star Class who has had such a successful racing career stretching over so long a period as Richard I. Stearns. He flashed into prominence twenty five years ago, when barely out of college, by winning the Great Lakes Championship in his first Glider, and he has been consistently winning major events ever since.

With characteristic modesty, Richard and his charming wife Frances do not display many of his prizes in their home in a northern suburb of Chicago. If they were to gather together every Star trophy he had ever won and try to put them all into one room, they would certainly have to move everything else out. He has won five Blue Stars, six U.S. Shipping Board trophies and ten Sheridan Shore Race Weeks, along with many lesser series of the IV District. But it is in the "big name" events that his performance is the most impressive.

He has won the Bacardi Cup twice, in 1967 and 1968. He holds no less than nine Silver Stars, a record exceeded only by Agostino Straulino's ten European Championships. Five of these were consecutive Spring Championships from 1962 to 1966. Along the way he scooped up five Jahncke trophies and three Walker-Meyers series, the open events that accompany Spring Championships.

In 1947 he made his first serious bid for the Gold Star, finishing third in the World's at Los Angeles. He missed first by a scant point on Chesapeake Bay in 1951. Eleven years later he won the Gold Star the hard way, against 73 entries in Portugal.

Representing the United States in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, he and his long time faithful crew Lynn Williams won silver medals.

Because he is the president of Murphy & Nye, the name of Richard Stearns has long been synonymous with Sailmaker to many people. But Dick's career is a typical example of the normal course of events in such cases: he is not a good sailor because he is a sailmaker; rather, he is a good sailmaker because he is a sailor. The Star racing came first, the sail making later. He acquired the business from Harry Nye, another World's Champion and former Commodore of the Star Class.

Dick occasionally steals time off from Stars to sail long distance cruising races. He enjoys ice?boating and dinghy racing during the winter, and has been known to build and fly model airplanes under the expert guidance of a teen?age son. He has for many years been an enthusiastic flier, using his own light plane for both business and pleasure. On more than one occasion the whole family has piled into the plane to fly to some far distant Star event.

Despite all his other activities, Richard Stearns' first and permanent loyalty has been to Star racing. This month he is planning to make a bid at New Orleans for yet one more Silver Star in the 1970 Spring Championship. We wish him luck, and another quarter century as successful as the last.

Richard (Dick) Stearns
September 4, 1927 – January 25, 2022
Richard (Dick) Stearns, champion sailor and marine industry innovator, died peacefully with family members at his side on January 25, 2022 at home in Delavan, WI. He was 94 years of age.

Dick was one of the best sailors to ever come out of the Midwest. Dick grew up on the south side of Chicago moving to the north side after his father died when he was 16. At 14 years old his father gave him a Star boat to keep him out of mischief. With no formal training or instruction, he went from last place in the fleet and, with Gary Comer, won his first Great Lakes Championship at 17 years old.

Dick attended South Shore High School and Drake University. He bought the sail making company Murphy & Nye from Harry Nye in 1952. The company had made parachutes during the war but was not making sails at the time. Soon Dick would be making sails for customers around the world including kings and princes. In 1954, Carlos de Cardenas (from Cuba) won the World’s Championship in the Star class with one of the first Orlon sails, which solidified Dick’s company as a leader in the industry. Dick patented the machine sewn bolt rope. Before that the rope that attached the sail to the mast was hand sewn on the sail.

Murphy & Nye also pioneered the cross-cut sail when Orlon and Dacron came out. Prior to Orlon, sails were made of cotton and were miter cut. Dick’s company would go on to become the dominant force in one-design sails for the next 25 years. Even Lowell North used Murphy & Nye sails prior to starting North Sails.  An incredible group of famous sailors worked at Murphy & Nye. At one point Murphy & Nye sails dominated most one design classes and all of the Olympic sailing classes.

In 1950 Dick won his first of eight Northern Hemisphere Championships. Along with winning five Great Lakes Star Class championships, he won his first of two North American Championships in 1960. Then in 1962 he won the Star Class Worlds Championship in Portugal with long time crew Lindsey Williams. The fleet of 73 boats from 19 nations shattered the record for most boats at a Star Class Worlds.  https://starclass.org/history/1962-world-championship-cascais-portugal .

The next year Dick won a Gold Medal at the Pan American Games with crew Buck Halperin, and in 1964 he won a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics with crew Lindsey Williams. Dick’s Olympic contribution didn’t stop with a silver medal. He was the assistant Olympic coach in 1968 and then the Olympic Sailing coach in 1972 and 1976. He was the Chairman of the US Olympic Committee for 8 years and coach of the US Pan American team in 1971 and 1975. He was the Vice President of the United States Yacht Racing Union (now US Sailing).

Dick sailed the first Etchells in the trial against the Soling to determine which boat would be the new Olympic class. The Etchell won hands down but politics got in the way, so the Soling became the new Olympic 3 man keel boat. Dick won the first Etchells Great Lake Championship in 1976. He also was second in the Soling North Americans.

In the mid 70’s Dick moved on to sailing larger boats. He was one of the co-founders of the Chicago T-10 fleet. In 1978, he won the first of his two T-10 North American Championships. He went on to win multiple Mackinac races with his T-10s Dora and Glider.  In 2000, Dick sailed his 35-year-old Cal 40 to first overall in the Millennium 600 Port Huron to Chicago race, beating boats like the new Maxi boat Magnitude, an Andrews 70. Dick sailed 53 Mackinac races, sailing on famous boats Dyna, Dora, Inferno, Bay Bea as well as his own Cal 40 and T-10’s. His last Mac races were sailed on J/Boats with his son Rich and daughter-in-law Lori.

Sailing was not Dick’s only love. He flew airplanes before he could drive. From a T-6 and a Navion to multiple Bonanza’s and Cessna 310s, he flew into his 80s. Then he picked up model airplane flying which he continued until his death.  He was an honorary member of his remote-controlled flying club in Richmond, IL.

Dick was not very good at relaxing but when he was at his farm in southwest Wisconsin, he came close to it by mowing trails, playing with his dogs and enjoying his family.

Dick co-founded Lands’ End with Gary Comer and Robert “Buck” Halperin. In the 50’s he was part of the Lord Calvert Canadian Whiskey “Man of Distinction” ad campaign. In the 60’s he lent his name to an upstart life jacket company.

He was part of the Illinois Pheasant hunting team, where they gave him the most shells because dead eye Dick didn’t miss. He was a skeet shooter his entire life starting in his teens when there were gun clubs on Lake Michigan. Normal scores of 23 to 25 (perfect score) were common for Dick. He was a long-time board member of the Sea Scouts and was a member of Chicago Yacht Club since 1942.

Dick is survived by his partner and special friend Bernice DeWeerd, his sons Richard (Lori), Chris, his daughters Susie (Bill) Allen and Barbie (Dave) Alampi and his eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Dick was a kind, gentle soul and was loved and admired by all. He will be buried in the Stearns family plot at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. A memorial service will be held at Belmont Yacht Club in the Spring of 2022.

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