Phil White’s Marathon Swim Organizing Story
Have you heard of Kingdom Swim? Imagine a blissful summer day in late July in the far reaches of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The weekend kicks off with a swimmer and pet parade and a pasta feed. There’s a 1 mile swim. When you’re ready you can go a little further out into the lake for a 3 miles swim, or check off your first marathon with a 6 mile swim! Jump up to 10 miles of open lake. Or bust the border to get 25 km under your belt. This is what Phil calls the ladder, it’s where my marathon swim journey started…
Culminating with a search for a lake monster, as a swimmer scouting the length of the Lake Memphremagog for Memphre. Or perhaps the culmination is swimming across and back? There has been a few doubles!
In our interview today, my former neighbor on Sunset Acres, Phil White, tells how he got started by trying to save the local pool and in the process fell in love with open water swimmers.
In his own words: I was born in Poughkeepsie, NY on June 28, 1948
Education: 1966: HS, Phillips Academy Andover; 1974 BS Columbia University; 1978: JD Georgetown University Law Center.
In my younger days, I worked as a carpenter, a carriage driver in Central Park, a casino cashier in Athens, Greece, and as a Research Assistant at Columbia Geology Dept, UVM, Georgetown, and the Federal Judicial Center. In the 1980s I served as Orleans County State’s Attorney, and was a trial attorney for over three decades after that. I was married for 19 years and raised two kids. I was a youth soccer coach for many years.
I am a dedicated downhill skier, runner/jogger, boater, and water rat. During the 1980s I was an avid windsurfer. I’ve loved hiking and camping and playing softball and soccer. During the past 40 years, I’ve boated on Lake Memphremagog in all conditions, fair weather and foul, day and night, drunk and sober.
I started The Games in 2007 to help raise money for our local recreation center and pool that was in extreme financial distress. When the center closed in 2013, I started a small business, Kingdom Games, to organize, host and promote outdoor running, biking, swimming and ice skating events. We are based on Neuman’s Own, with any net profits dedicated to local charitable events.
Over the last decade, open water swimming in the Northeast Kingdom has blossomed. Here’s the chronology:
2009 Kingdom Swim
2010 Willoughby Swim
2011 In Search of Memphre
2012 Caspian Swim
2013 NEK Swim Week
2014 The Great Skate
2015 US Winter Swimming Championship
2016 Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival
2020 Saturday Clubhous Swim Series
In 2021 we will be hosting 25 days of open water swimming: Kingdom Swim (1), NEK Swim Week (8), In Search of Memphre (7), and the Saturday Clubhous Swim Series (9)