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| Winning Dipsea, 1979 |
(June, 2021) Don Chaffee has run, biked, and swum in California, Kenya, Uganda, and Michigan. He may be the only person on earth who can claim the following: He has won the Dipsea Race and been congratulated after a Kenyan marathon by the legendary Kip Keino. He has also served as a guide runner for Harry Cordellos, run a 2:43 at Boston, and been competing in triathlons for 30+ years. Chafee, now 81, appreciates Walt Stack’s credo: “Start slow and taper off.” On his current runs and bike rides, he makes sure to “loudly thank whatever deities have blessed me.” That’s never a bad idea.Career-profession? I spent 50 years trying to inspire college students to think like economists starting with graduate school at the University of California, Davis. Besides Davis, I taught at Middlebury College (undergraduate alma mater); University of South Carolina; Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda; San Francisco State University; Golden Gate University; and for the last 24 years of my career, Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
When and why did you start running? In spring 1959, my junior year in college, I began jogging
