Enduring Gratitude

A Champion Swimmer Dives Deep

At Hotchkiss, William ‘Bill’ McMaster ’58 Struggled to Stay Afloat but Ultimately Prevailed

In many ways, Bill McMaster swam his way to Hotchkiss. From the time he clinched his first medal as a freestyle sprinter, a series of fortuitous events led him to Lakeville and ultimately to a career in medicine.

BY WENDY CARLSON

BY AGE 12, BILL McMASTER

had the tall and lanky physique of a swimmer and was already ranked first nationally in the 60-yard-sprint. In those days, most public indoor pools measured 20 yards in length, and 60-yard sprints were standard. Later, when he competed in 25-yard pools at Hotchkiss and at Yale, McMaster would excel in the 50- and 100yard sprints.

But it was in his small local Y.M.C.A. pool on Chicago’s South Side where he first honed the speed, technique, and style that caught the attention of a swim coach named Walter Schlueter. Soft-spoken and circumspect, Schlueter was an Olympic diving coach and a member of the Swimming Hall of Fame. He also had connections, and he would use them to steer McMaster toward Hotchkiss.

“He was the magician who changed my life,” says McMaster, who had never heard of Hotchkiss before applying.

McMaster went on to attend Yale, earning a B.S. degree in zoology, before graduating from Case Western Reserve with a medical degree in 1966. A year later, while McMaster was in surgical residency at the University of Chicago Billings Hospital, the Vietnam War was underway. He was drafted into the Air Force and stationed in South Carolina. There, he was in charge of the emergency room on the base. He fixed the broken bones of airmen and their family members. The brief experience would inspire him to switch his specialty from general surgery to orthopaedic surgery.

After the Air Force, McMaster returned to Chicago to continue his residency in general surgery before switching to orthopaedics at the University of California, Irvine where he completed his training. He eventually became a faculty member and served as chair of the Orthopaedic Division. He now resides in Costa Mesa, CA, and is a health services professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, Irvine. In addition, he is the chief of orthopaedic surgery at Long Beach Veterans Administration Hospital, where he teaches residents and medical students while carrying a full surgery schedule performing hip and knee arthroplasty.

McMaster credits Hotchkiss with paving the way for him to become a physician, a dream he had harbored since he was five and had his appendix removed. He was in awe of the surgeon who performed the operation. His grandmother encouraged his interest, providing him with books on anatomy and science throughout his recovery and in the years that followed.

But it was his skill in swimming that would make his dream a reality. By the time McMaster was a freshman at his public high school, he was earning swimming medals left and right. Schlueter invited him to practice with the all-girls team he was coaching, some of whom were Olympiccaliber athletes. By then, Schlueter knew McMaster was talented, but he also knew

It was in his small local Y.M.C.A. pool on Chicago’s South Side where he first honed the speed, technique, and style that caught the attention of a swim coach.

that his swimming career would not go beyond high school if he did not attend college. He wanted McMaster to attend Yale, which, at the time, had an exceptional swim team, including national champions.

McMaster, however, came from a family of tradesmen; neither of his parents had gone to college. “We were not a wealthy family by a long shot,” remembers McMaster.

“We were a close-knit group of four, with parents who were very supportive and held high expectations for my brother and me. They were involved in our lives, and engaged with our education and goings on.

“My father was a plumber, as was his father. They worked hard, had pride in their craft, and provided for us well within the scope of their ability.”

He could have easily followed in his father’s footsteps, taking up a trade after high school, but a turning point came in his life in 1954 when he accompanied Schlueter to the U.S. National Swimming Competition in Indianapolis, IN. By then, he was a sophomore in high school and winning medals competing in the South Side high school league. He consistently took first place in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle.

In Indianapolis that year, Schlueter introduced McMaster to Yale swimming coach Robert J.H. Kiphuth. McMaster jumped into the lake where the competitions were held to demonstrate his swimming technique. Kiphuth was impressed but put forth the harsh reality: Even if he graduated with good grades from his less-rigorous public high school, McMaster’s chances of getting accepted to Yale would be a long shot.

He urged McMaster to consider a preparatory school and recommended Hotchkiss, where his son, Delaney Kiphuth, had been athletic director before accepting the position of athletic director at Yale. Robert Kiphuth was also a Hotchkiss trustee. “So, getting to Hotchkiss turned out to be an unexpected and fortuitous bit of my history,” reflects McMaster.

Back home, his parents encouraged him to apply even though they knew nothing about boarding school life or the cost. McMaster wrote to the School indicating his interest in attending and asked if he might be eligible for an athletic scholarship. While the School did not offer athletic scholarships, the Office of Admission encouraged him to make a formal application, and he was accepted into the School’s summer school in 1955 as an upper-mid scholarship student.

“Talk about a shock,” McMaster says of his summer school experience. “I took English with ‘the Hawk’ (Robert Hawkins), German with Charles Berry, and history with ‘Butch’ Thomas Stearns. The session was six weeks long, and it was intimidating to say the least.

“I flunked every course. It was discouraging, and it was scary, and I very quickly realized that I was in an environment that was way beyond anything I had ever experienced –– and I

At Yale, McMaster competed in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle during his four years.

McMaster, featured in the 1958 Mischianza yearbook, is shown, center, with his teammates.

MISCH PHOTO: THE

had done well in high school. I just didn’t have the tools to attack the challenges of the Hotchkiss curriculum. In my high school we had weekly tests, but no midterms or finals like we had at Hotchkiss.”

Though he struggled mightily with his courses, he never considered dropping out. He was too awestruck by Hotchkiss. Much to his delight, the School admitted him as an upper mid that fall.

“That was probably not a good choice based on my performance in the summer school,’’ he says. “To this day, I don’t fully comprehend the quantum mechanics that allowed me to stay at Hotchkiss, but I have an inkling that Mr. Kiphuth, as a trustee, in conjunction with former Headmaster Bill Olsen ’39, who was at that time an English instructor and the swim coach, bent the curve in my direction.”

Still, during his fall semester as an upper mid, his grades continued on a downward trajectory. Despite his poor performance, McMaster had made up his mind he would find a way to succeed at Hotchkiss.

Behind the scenes, Olsen was engineering a plan for him to start the winter semester as a lower mid, he recalls. “He made an effort to salvage me and suggested that I drop back to lower mid-level. After discussing it with my mother, who gave me the option to return home, I made the decision that I did not want to quit and disappoint her. It was the best decision I made,” he recalls.

The pieces from then on just fell into place. McMaster began to flourish academically and athletically, making the necessary grades while captaining the swim team, where he broke School records in freestyle, backstroke, and relays. He played football in the fall and in the spring pitched for the varsity baseball team as captain. As a senior he won the Jadwin Memorial Trophy as “best athlete” of the Class of 1958.

“Obviously, the major challenge of Hotchkiss was learning to study in an efficient manner and to be able to master the subjects being taught,” says McMaster, on reflection.

By his second semester he was thriving, and he would eventually be rewarded with early admission to Yale with Advanced Placement in English, German, and science. Among those who helped him along the way were German instructor Charles Berry, who was dedicated to his role as a teacher, and English instructor Richard Gurney P’53, with whom McMaster shared a love of baseball, poetry, and fishing.

“Gurney was a fly-fisherman, and during Opening Days class was always cancelled,” recalls McMaster. Years later McMaster, too,

“I flunked every course. It was discouraging, and it was scary, and I very quickly realized that I was in an environment that was way beyond anything I had ever experienced.”

MISCH PHOTO: THE

In this picture of Radio Free Hotchkiss, McMaster is pictured in the center holding a guitar. Tim Litle ’58, pictured in the dark jacket and hat on the right, engineered the electrical system in the dorms as a transmission mode for broadcasting.

would take up the sport, eventually acquiring an extensive fly-fishing and sporting collection of art and serving as a trustee of the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, VT. Another important figure during his time at Hotchkiss was biology instructor John Bodel, who introduced him to research projects that fueled his interest in science. Decades later, during his residency at University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics, McMaster completed a U.S. Public Health Service fellowship in surgical research.

“I am forever grateful to those people who encouraged me and afforded me the opportunity to attend Hotchkiss, which allowed me to fulfill my lifetime ambition to become a surgeon,” he says.

Today, McMaster teaches future generations of orthopaedic surgeons. He often harkens back to lessons learned from those instructors who gave so much of themselves during his adolescenct years and the ripple effect they had on his career.

“My teaching career is directly influenced by and dedicated to them,” he insists.

Teaching orthopaedic post-doctoral residents in an operating room is a vastly different learning environment from high school, but it still requires mentoring through personal engagement and participation, he explains. He is present in the operating room with residents, coaching them through surgical procedures, and he continues to guide them as they progress in their medical studies.

It wasn’t just the Hotchkiss instructors who had an impact on his life. “It was everyone you ran into at Hotchkiss,” he notes. “They were so dedicated and involved; they all influenced me. The place exuded excellence.”

While swimming was his conduit to becoming a surgeon, his Hotchkiss experience made all the difference, he says. McMaster continued to stay involved in competitive swimming. In 1978, he began serving as a

When McMaster is not in the operating theater, he can be found fishing at his favorite places, including Montana (pictured right). U.S. Swimming Olympic/National Team Physician for all aquatic sports, a position he held until 2000, when the demands of his clinical practice became greater.

These days, rather than spending his downtime in a pool, he lifts weights and works on cardiovascular endurance at the gym to build the physical stamina required for working long hours in the operating room. He has never quite lost his competitive edge, though. All those hours of speed drills make it impossible for him to swim leisurely. “Every time I get into a pool,” he jokes, “I see the clock, and can’t help thinking about intervals!” H

In appreciation of all Hotchkiss has done for him, McMaster and his wife, Lynn D. McMaster, established The McMaster Family Scholarship in 2014 in honor of his parents, William John McMaster and Adriene Emond McMaster, who provided the support and encouragement for him to attend Hotchkiss. The scholarship is a permanent endowment that will help to support students receiving financial assistance from The Hotchkiss School.