Portrait of Grace Robertson, unknown artist.

16.04.1930 – 03.03.2021

It is difficult to put into words what Grace meant to me and to field hockey in the United States – she was an inspiration to so many and we shall all miss her a great deal.

When I graduated from college in the mid-1960s and took my first job at a small liberal arts college in central Pennsylvania, I already knew that I wanted to be involved in providing sport opportunities for girls and women. Growing up near Philadelphia, I had been fortunate to compete in high school and college sports, but most young women I met in college had not. Field hockey presented those opportunities for me and I immediately became involved and represented our local association at my first US Field Hockey National Tournament in 1966 where I met the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA) President, Grace Robertson, for the first time.

Over the decades I came to realise that Grace was the very embodiment of US field hockey. Our longest serving president, serving not once but on four occasions, Grace’s service did not end with her final term. She continued to support and advocate for field hockey, to represent and inspire other women to service for field hockey, nationally and internationally, as so many of her friends in the UK can attest. She was inducted to the US Field Hockey Hall of Fame in 1971. Grace’s support of our women’s national team, traveling with the rest of ‘The Golden Girls’ all over the world, continued to the end of her remarkable life. We shall miss Grace at future hockey events where her absence will be noted, but we shall also remember her, her love for, and her service to, our wonderful sport.

A full tribute to Grace is posted on the US Field Hockey website, click here.

Sharon Taylor
Past President of US Field Hockey and THM supporter