Berlin ’36 Olympian McMillin dies at age 91

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, September 3, 2005

The islander is remembered as kind, bright and a true sportsman.

Slicing through the water, his well-tuned crew left little wake.

As a person, Olympian Jim McMillin left a shining wake when he hung up his oars.

Bain­bridge Island resident and 1936 Olympic rowing champion James Burge McMillin, age 91, died Aug. 22 at Harrison Hospital in Bremerton.

Island historian Jerry Elfendahl remembered McMillin as “respectful, kind and bright, a grand gentleman, a true sportsman from an era when you didn’t flaunt your athleticism.”

While at the University of Washington, McMillin was a member of the eight-man shell crew team that won the gold for the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. He rowed as the captain in seat No. 5, and was well-known for being the squad’s tallest member at 6 feet 6 inches.

McMillin was born March 8, 1914 in Seattle to James C. and Mary E. (Santerre) McMillin and raised on Queen Anne Hill.

He graduated from Queen Anne High School in Seattle in 1933 and earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Washington in 1938.

In an Aug. 30, 2004 Review article about McMillin’s experiences, Dee Axelrod wrote:

“…At the University of Washington, he found his six-foot frame the right build for rowing, a pursuit that developed from the fierce competition among the English water taxis who ferried passengers from the big ships and that still demands tremendous upper-body strength and lung capacity. McMillin excelled in the hyper-competitive atmosphere of UW rowing, where the varsity team would be composed of whoever rowed best that day.”

When the team went undefeated at the annual standing regatta of Class A crews in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the most important U.S. race for collegiate teams, they decided to try for the Olympics.

The team won the Olympic trials in Princeton, N.J., but they nearly didn’t go because they had to raise $5,000 in two days to go, but thanks to help from Seattle, the team quickly raised $7,500.

In Berlin, the U.S. boat was placed in the most disadvantageous lane, exposed to the headwind and competing against Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, England and Germany.

In a Sept. 20, 2000, Review article, McMillin recalled:

“Whether intentional or not, the wind and direction of the starter’s megaphone made it difficult to hear, so the American team began a stroke and a half behind the others, and after 500 meters trailed by a half a length.

“We were just sitting there,” McMillin said. “And the Brits next to us took off and we thought, ‘Jesus! We’d better get going!’”

Despite the inauspicious start, the team broke the world record with a time of 6:25:45.

“Immediately after the race, McMillin jotted down notes on a piece of stationery. ‘Really should have rowed a better race,’ the notes say. ‘Too excited.’ Then, beneath in captial letters and underscored:

‘WORLD CHAMPS!!’”

McMillin was a member of the University of Washington Alumni Association and the U.S. Olympic Alumni Association for rowing in 1936.

He was head coach for varsity crew at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., for 12 years, from 1945-1957, while he worked as a lab engineer doing classified research.

He moved to Bainbridge Island in 1958, and married his wife, Olga, on June 19, 1970.

He worked at Boeing as an engineer and supervisor manager for the commercial airplane group until he retired in 1976.

He was preceded in death by his wife in 2003.

He is survived by his daughter, Denise Amende, and her husband, Vaughan, of Port Orchard.

Memorial donations may be made to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, P.O. Box 19024, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98109.

Arrangements are by Miller-Woodlawn in Bremerton.