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Top sailboat racer to speak at Boys & Girls Club

The Boys & Girls Club of Huntington County will be welcoming Dick Tillman to participate in Olympic Day 2013 on Friday, June 28.

He will be speaking at the opening ceremony at 9 a.m. and will then spend some time meeting with club members.

Youth will then participate in track and field events at 2 p.m. at Crestview Middle School.

Tillman began racing sailboats on Lake Wawasee in northern Indiana when he was 7 years old. Now, nearly 70 years later, he is still racing sailboats.

He graduated from Elkhart High School in 1954, the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958, and earned a graduate degree in engineering at Texas A&M University in 1964.

He also served as an officer in the United States Air Force for 21 years. During that time, he and his brother won a bronze medal in the 1959 Pan American Games and in 1976 he was selected for the U.S. Olympic Team.

Tillman was selected by his fellow competitors in 1965 as the top sailor in the United States, winning the Rolex Award, which is sailing's equivalent to football's Heisman Award. He has won numerous national and two world championships.

Tillman and his wife Linda have three daughters and nine grandchildren.