CASL institution Bill Caulkins dies

Wilford “Bill” Caulkins III, a Chattanooga Area Swim League institution, died peacefully Friday morning at the age of 87.

Caulkins voluntarily served as the CASL’s head referee and as its coordinator of officials from 1975 to 2013. He announced his retirement before the 2014 season, and the league renamed its marquee event the Bill Caulkins City Swim Meet.

“I’ve done this a long time and met a lot of nice people along the way,” Caulkins said in a Times Free Press article in March 2014.

Caulkins was inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. Daughters Betsy and Caroline were All-America swimmers at GPS and later competed at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, with Caroline a 2013 Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame inductee.

All three have been inducted into the Lookout Mountain Sports Hall of Fame, with Caroline going in this past May.

A 1949 McCallie School graduate, Caulkins played football on two Mid-South championship teams and set a school record in the pole vault. Caulkins began his college studies at the University of North Carolina, where he played lacrosse, before transferring and graduating from the University of Alabama, where he played tennis.

His son, Billy, played tennis at McCallie.

Caulkins, who served many years as an elder at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church, was active in area softball leagues in addition to helping guide the CASL, and he was a two-time city doubles handball champion. He was preceded in death by wife Nancy in 2011.

A celebration of Caulkins’ life is set for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian, where the family will receive friends from 10 to 11:30.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423757-6524.