Gary was a high school standout at Shaler High, class of 1976, in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. After graduating, he attended the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) were he continued his success. Culminating with being named an All-American for cross country his senior year. Gary was also inducted into the Pitt Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
After college, he started running for Allegheny Nike, finishing 5th in the Pittsburgh Great Race (10K) with a time of 29:26. During this time, Gary took a job with Nike, as a technical rep, promoting the brand throughout Western PA, Ohio, Western NY and West Virginia. In 1983, he won the Nike/OTC Marathon in Eugene, OR in a time of 2:12:32 catching the eye of Athletics West, which he started competing for in 1985. In fact, he has never run a marathon slower than 2:16.
He is a three time winner of the Annapolis 10 miler, which included a 48:02 in 1983. Gary also won the 1983 Youngstown International Peace Race (25K), besting a quality international field in a time of 1:18:16.
Gary also competed in the 1984 US Olympic Marathon Trials in Buffalo.
A great fact about Gary, he has run at least five miles in all 50 states and 36 different countries.
It was in the summer of 1984 when I met Gary. I was working at the Athlete’s Foot and he came in to do an employee clinic teaching us the everything we could ever want to know about Nike’s running shoe line. The next summer, I had an internship with Nike out of their Pittsburgh sales office and became friends with Gary. My junior year at Robert Morris College, he was an assistant coach and taught me the finer points of distance running that I still use today and have passed on to several of the runners that I have coached.
One of the things that still stands out in my mind, all these years later, was when I overheard Gary ordering some shoes. He called up Nike and gave the person on the other end his last number (form for making his custom shoes) and then told them what colors he would like. As a college student, that was one of the coolest things I had seen, as my love for running and footwear combined in that one phone call.
Gary later moved to Atlanta for a few years, then spent some time in Taiwan, before eventually settling in New England while working for several shoe companies.
Today, Gary is happy, living in Lunenburg, MA, (a quiet little town 38 mile Northwest of Boston) working as a consultant for Saucony.
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