Hugh Foley, Martin City gold medalist, dies

Hugh Foley, an Olympic gold medalist and Martin City native, died last month from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

He was 72.

Foley won a gold medal in rowing at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in October, 1964. He was 20 at the time.

In a 1965 interview in the Hungry Horse News, Foley said he became interested in rowing when a fellow classmate at Loyola Marymount University asked him to consider going out for the team.

Four weeks later he was in his first race.

His sister, Marion Foley, said they had to drive to Columbia Falls to watch him on TV. The family didn’t have a TV, and neither did their neighbors.

Foley logged to pay for college, Marion recalled.

His father bought a small sale up the South Fork, near the family home.

“Dad had him log that sale so he’d have enough to go to college,” she recalled.

Foley also took Marion to her prom. She said she thought it would be great to go to the prom with an Olympic gold medalist. Hugh was 6 years older than she was.

“He ordered frog legs for me to eat at dinner,” she said. “He thought I should broaden my horizons.”

Foley was born March 3, 1944 in Seattle, Washington to Edna Rose Foley and Hugh Miller. His father, Lt. Hugh Miller of the 169th Infantry Regiment, was killed in the Philippines during World War II when Hugh was six months old. Edna Rose and husband Tom Foley raised Hugh in Martin City with eight siblings. He attended Columbia Falls High School and then went onto Loyola in Los Angeles, California.

At Loyola, the coach saw his potential and strongly suggested he needed to be at Philadelphia’s Vesper Rowing Club. Hugh transferred to Lasalle College in Philadelphia and started rowing at Vesper in 1963. He eventually qualified for their eight-man rowing team which won a gold medal.

At the medal ceremony, they let Foley hold the medal, Marion recalled, because he was the youngest on the squad.

In 1966, Foley finished his education at LaSalle College earning a degree in accounting. In 1967, he met his wife-to-be Birgit Louise Okeson on a blind date and they were married Aug. 23, 1968. They had two sons, Elias Joaquin and Erik Blair, in 1972 and 1974 respectively.

Hugh was the head rowing coach at Boston University from 1970 – 78 and was involved in team selection and training for the 1972 Olympic boats, plus various international races in 1974 and 1976. The family moved to Montana in 1978 where Hugh worked for Plum Creek Lumber in Human Resources and Production Supervision. The family enjoyed many years of hiking, biking, camping, and fishing in and around Glacier National Park.

In 1990, the family moved to Eugene, Oregon where Hugh became a licensed financial advisor with Ameriprise Financial.

He was active in many civic organizations while in Oregon. He died peacefully in his sleep Nov. 9.