The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Farewell to a force of nature: Roudebush defied time
It was a rite of passage almost as sure as the changing of the seasons.
Once a year, I would walk into The News-Herald before high school sports cranked up and see a new voicemail.
The voice was ever so familiar.
“Chris, it’s your buddy George Roudebush,” the message typically began.
Roudebush was making his semi-annual call to proudly fill me in on his latest exploits in Masters track and field.
If there were a textbook definition of a force of nature — in track and field competition and in life — the longtime Chardon resident was the epitome.
That’s why March 24, when I heard news of Roudebush’s death earlier this month in Washington state at the age of 95, it felt like a rite of passage had gone with it.
In the last 10 years, I had written six stories about Roudebush, typically revolving around his summer track and field performances.
The last time he and I spoke was during the holidays, as he wanted to let me know about competing in a virtual meet amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Because of the pandemic, I work remotely for the most part. So when Roudebush was trying to get a hold of me this time, the messages never quite got through punctually.
Obviously, you can’t automatically expect a product of “The Greatest Generation” to improvise from a phone call and send a text or an email, a direct message on Twitter or scroll through Facebook.
But much as he did throughout his life, he persisted.
One day, an email arrived via his daughter Lailey, wanting to know if I could track him down, on this occasion across the country.
As his health became more of a challenge, the calls slowed.
We didn’t touch base in 2019 or the summer of 2020, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear from Roudebush again before Christmas.
On the occasion of his passing, I hope you will indulge me to share Roudebush’s journey through a fulfilling and inspiring life again.
A Shaker Heights graduate, Roudebush served in the armed forces during World War II as an infantry man under General George S. Patton.
With his 60-pound backpack in tow, Roudebush crossed the English Channel and the Rhine on the march to victory.
When he returned from the war, despite admittedly not being an athlete of note in his Shaker days, he competed in college for Denison.
In 1947, Roudebush found himself in a hurdles heat at Denison’s league meet with another athlete who also had his college
experience delayed by World War II service — the legendary Harrison Dillard.
Dillard, who was a senior at Baldwin Wallace, went on to become a fourtime Olympic gold medalist.
Roudebush never ceased to entertain me with his folksy charm and sense of humor.
Telling me that story in 2011 about facing Dillard, he let out a hearty laugh after joking, “I looked down after the first hurdle, he was in the opposite lane and I didn’t see him after that.”
What Roudebush did see, decades later, was remarkable success as a Masters track and field athlete.
From 2006-11, he competed at the USATF Masters indoor national meet three times, with nine top fives and five gold medals at the 2011 edition in Albuquerque, when he had graduated to the 85-andover division.
He seemed surprised I knew which meets at which he had competed.
“Are those things on the Internet?” Roudebush said, chuckling.
“It’s wonderful with an 85-and-over bracket. It really opens up opportunities. We got rid of the 80-year-old whippersnappers.” In 2015, Roudebush called after returning from the National Senior Games in Minneapolis and the USATF Masters outdoor national meet in Jacksonville. Across the two meets, he had 16 top fives — now in the 90-94 division.
So much for the 80-something whippersnappers.
The man competed in steeplechase — STEEPLECHASE — at 90 that year.
It wasn’t unusual through the 2010s to see Roudebush at SPIRE refining his high jump craft or, with permission, running on the turf at Chardon Memorial Stadium near his home, the latter because it was kind to his legs.
By 2017, at age 92, he spoke with joy of his training regimen, running two 50-yard sprints and a halfmile every two days, along with running up and down the stadium steps and weight training at his local YMCA.
That summer, he went to Toronto for a continental Masters meet and took home gold medals in his beloved high jump, along with hammer throw and discus, in the 90-94 division.
Although there was one facet that bugged him.
“That’s a heck of a lousy drive to go up there,” he said. “It’s eight hours to get up there and five hours to come back because it was a Sunday and nobody’s on the road coming south on Sunday morning. It’s such a big city — just too big. You get lost.”
Yes, the man — at 92 — was driving himself to Toronto to compete.
At the USATF Masters National outdoor meet in 2018, Roudebush was part of a shuttle hurdles relay at 93 — his fellow relay members were a bunch of young guys at 84, 81 and 80 — that set a world record because four 80-plus competitors had never completed a shuttle hurdles relay.
“I had to make sure every darn hurdle was legal,” Roudebush said. “Everybody in the joint is watching me. So that was fun.”
For that meet in Spokane, Wash., along with National Masters in Sacramento, Roudebush got on a flight, rented a car and drove to the meet.
“I decided with Sacramento — and probably both of them — hey, I’m in good enough health to do those two things,” he said. “I better go now. Who knows what’s ahead?”
Sadly, what was ahead were the hands of time were winding down.
That familiar call didn’t come in 2019, but he did compete in decathlon in Ames, Iowa, at the National Masters Combined Events Championships.
The summer of 2020 went by without contact, either.
Then that email came Dec. 17.
When we did get on the phone together, it was clear a lot had changed in two years.
With his health, Roudebush occasionally told me about bumps in the road. This time, he was coming off a tumor in his bladder and other issues that led to him moving in with his daughter Lailey in the Seattle area.
But he wasn’t done competing. Not just yet.
The World Masters meet scheduled for the summer in Toronto had been canceled due to the pandemic, but Roudebush read in a magazine about a Worldwide Virtual Masters Challenge.
He trekked to nearby Bainbridge High School in Washington state and competed in shot put, discus, hammer throw and high jump, recording standards in all four events.
In order to net a mark in high jump, Roudebush staged his own high jump stand, using his own standards and crossing pole with Bainbridge’s high jump mat.
During his interview, Lailey served as an intermediary to help move along and focus the conversation for her father.
“He’s indomitable. He’s amazing — an inspiration to all of us,” she said.
“(Competing) makes his eyes light up.”
In 2020, for his service in World War II in the 95th Infantry Division, Roudebush received the Knight of the French Legion of Honor from the French government.
He told me in that conversation he hoped to get the coronavirus vaccination and compete at the indoor national meet in March.
Obviously — and sadly — that didn’t come to fruition.
That chat just before Christmas ended with Roudebush thanking me for sharing his story over the years, referring to me as a friend, and with me getting to note how much of an inspiration and force of nature I regarded him.
I was hoping it wasn’t goodbye, but it wound up being.
“I’m supposed to be old at 93, but I don’t feel any older than last year and my health has been able to hold up pretty well,” Roudebush told me in 2018.
We’ll make sure your legacy holds up pretty well from here, George.
God speed, my friend, and may the track and field lanes and competition areas in heaven be wide open to you for all eternity.