Frank Cody:  

The picture dates back to 2010 when I joined a group of other senior men and women master swimmers for a week-long swim workshop in Islamorada on the Florida Keys. We were working and learning mornings and afternoons under the guidance of the former Olympian Gary Hall to swim better and faster. It worked. My day-b-day world the past almost 20 years has been Kalamazoo, MI. My wife, Shirley, and I came here supposedly between school administration jobs for me so I could touch down in the teaching world again for a year, Latin and history at Kalamazoo Central High School. And we ended up staying. I retired from high school work in 2005 but since then continued for 7 more years, nearly full time in a variety of classes for Spring Arbor University, mostly at satellite campuses in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, but main campus and online as well. Shirley was director of the Three Rivers Public Library south of us and retired in 2014. Biggest leisure interest in retirement after 7 years was a return to the competitive swimming. I enjoyed when a Cub. Since 2005, I competed in 7 national championship meets and 2 world championship meets (age-group, of course), the latter in Perth, Australia and Goteborg, Sweden. My best events were the 200 butterfly and the 400 individual medley (Phelps' events). It helps a lot that the old boys who are willing to do them get fewer by the year. . In the fall of 2010 I placed second in the world at the master's world championships in Goteborg, Sweden in the 400 IM. But 2011, when I was 71 was my best year of competition. I placed 4th in the world listing of all times swum during the year in the 200 butterfly as well as placing in the top ten worlds in the breaststroke and individual medley. 2012 though spelled for the most part the en...Expand for more