From the Boardroom to the Classroom, Gmelich Selected for McCaffree Award
Victoria Hall Gmelich, who worked her way to an Ivy League education and developed a successful career trading mortgage derivatives on Wall Street before dedicating her life to providing educational opportunities, has been named the Charles McCaffree Award winner by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association (CSCAA). The award, selected by the CSCAA’s Board of Directors, recognizes a swimming or diving graduate who has achieved outstanding success outside of the pool. Gmelich will be recognized at the 61st Annual CSCAA College Swimming & Diving Awards on May 2nd, in Rosemont, Illinois.
Before 2017, Monmouth County, New Jersey provided a single-sex high school for boys. As a mother of four daughters and an advocate for young women, Victoria felt compelled to co-found Trinity Hall, an all-girls private high school to give over 300 young women the same opportunity. As the primary benefactors to Trinity Hall, Victoria and her husband Justin have spent countless time and treasure to ensure the high school’s success. Their philanthropic efforts have also endowed the Gmelich Lab for Financial Markets, Innovation and Technology at Villanova University, a professorship in Immunotherapy at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center and the Edward Hall Gmelich Scholarship Fund in memory of their son Teddy who died in 2002. Teddy’s Fund has supported multiple students annually at both the high school and the college level for close to 20 years. The Gmelichs have also made medical philanthropy a priority with efforts at Sloane Kettering, Columbia and Hospital for Special Surgery,
Victoria swam at Dartmouth and is a past member of the Dartmouth Athletics Advisory Board. Her efforts were instrumental in the reinstatement of Dartmouth’s swimming and diving teams. These include a recently completed $100,000 Match Challenge that has helped the teams climb back from their cuts. The Gmelich family is truly a swimming family. Daughter Caroline was a 6-time CSCAA All-American at Virginia and a member of an American record-breaking relay, helping the Cavaliers to the 2021 NCAA Division I Championship. Two of Victoria’s nephews carried on the family tradition as members of the Dartmouth men’s team, and a third is swimming at Bates College.
Five other former swimmers, including two doctors and four women were also nominated for this year’s McCaffree Award. Other nominees were:
Deanne Schweitzer, Founder and Co-owner of Turf (Simon Fraser, 1991)
Dr. Nancy Gritter, Lead Internist, Carolina Panthers (DePauw University, 1988)
Dr. Tarka Kirk Sell, Senior Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (2005)
Haley Scott DeMaria, Speaker and Author (Notre Dame, 1995)
Fares Ksebati, CEO, MySwimPro (Wayne State University, 2013)
Previous Selections
2020 - Roger Von Jouanne, Southern Illinois 1982, Walter Rogers, III, Southern Illinois 1962
2019 - Dr. Brian Casey, Notre Dame 1985
2018 - Carter Cast, Stanford 1985
2017 - Morgan Burke, Purdue University 1973
2016 - Brad Snyder, USNA 2006
2015 - Dr. James DeBord, Illinois 1969
2014 - John Davis, Texas 1993
2013 - Major Ray O’Donnell, Hawaii 2001, Dr. Steven Scott, Springfield 1972
2012 - Frank Comfort, Syracuse 1967
2011 - Adolph Kiefer, Texas 1939
2008 - R. Todd Ruppert, Kenyon 1978
2006 - Chuck Wielgus, Providence 1972
2005 - Rowdy Gaines, Auburn 1981
1998 - Pat Wall
1997 - Jody Durst, California 1968
1996 - Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., NC State 1974
1995 - Dr. Steve Rerych, Columbia 1969
1994 - Jim Veres
1993 - Dr. John Crecine, Michigan 1962
1992 - Robert Helmick, Drake 1957
1991 - Frank McKinney, Indiana 1961
1990 - 'Tiger' Holmes, Florida 1948
1989 - Charles Keating, Cincinnati 1966
1988 - William Simon, Lafayette 1952
1987 - Dave McCampbell, Navy 1933
1986 - Paul (Buddy) Bacha, Alabama
1985 - Hal Henning, North Central 1941
1984 - Alvin Benedict, Rutgers 1948
