Oak Ridge Swim Club celebrates 50 years

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Photo courtesy of Oak Ridge Swim Club Located on N.C. 150 across from Oak Ridge Elementary School, Oak Ridge Swim Club has been a popular place for families to enjoy swimming and spending time with friends for 50 years.

by ANNETTE JOYCE

Oak Ridge was a sleepy little farm community in the early ‘70s, and with the exception of the newly renamed Oak Ridge Military Academy, the four corners of the crossroads at N.C. 68 and 150 were occupied by pastureland and crops.

While the community was more bucolic in nature, its residents had big ideas about adding more recreational opportunities. One of those ideas was to build a community swimming pool for local families. That was 50 years ago, and Oak Ridge Swim Club is now an established community icon.

With the passage of time, most of the people involved in creating the swim club have passed away and there is little recorded history. However, there’s a consensus among those we interviewed that two men, Buster Linville and Walter Tice, who died in 2010 and 2011 respectively, were the main ones involved with instigating the project.

Oak Ridge resident Linda Pegg, who served on the club’s fi rst board and was secretary/treasurer of the organization for over a decade, remembered attending a meeting to gauge interest in a community swimming pool and tennis court.

Although this type of venture was quite progressive for such a small, rural community, there was enough interest that the group formed a committee to investigate the logistics of building the pool and clubhouse.

After determining that creating a swim club had enough community support, that committee became the fi rst board, with Tice taking on the role of president. Pegg, along with fi ve other area residents, Romulus Linville, John Clodfelter, J.C. Williams, Johnny Swicegood and John Peters, made up the fi rst board.

The club was established as a private entity owned by members who were required to make a one-time stock purchase and pay annual dues. To make the plan work, Buster Linville put up the money to purchase the property, which continued onpage 22