United States Field Hockey Association
A member of the United States Olympic Committee

Men's Hockey Pioneer John Greer Dies at Age 71.

Olympian and former Field Hockey Association of America president, John Greer, died Dec. 5 as a result of complications following heart surgery. Greer was 71.

A member of the 1956 U.S. Olympic Field Hockey Team, Greer served as a playing manager for the team at the Melbourne Games. He later served as the head coach for the U.S. team at the 1967 Pan American Games where he led the team to a bronze medal in the first Pan Am field hockey tournament. Overall, Greer participated as either an athlete, coach or official in six Olympic Games and four Pan Am Games.

A longtime resident of Greenwich, Conn., Greer served as the president of the Field Hockey Association of America from 1977-84. The men's FHAA merged with the women's governing body in 1993 to form the U.S. Field Hockey Association.

In 1999, Greer received the US Olympic Committee President’s Award in recognition of his more than 40 years of service to the Olympic movement and the sport of field hockey.

He was a 1947 graduate of Taft School and received his bachelor's degree in 1951 from Williams College.

Born July 27, 1929, in Greenwich, he was the son of the late Henry Kirk Greer and Louise Roberts "Bobbie" Greer. Greer's parents are generally considered the founders of men's field hockey in the United States after English-born Louise responded to a call from Contance Applebee to help coach field hockey in the United States. Together the Greers started coed hockey in the Greenwich area and in Rye, N.Y.  The elder Greer served as playing-manager of the first U.S. Olympic Field Hockey Team in Los Angeles in 1932 and served as the first President of the Field Hockey Association of America from 1927-58.

Enlisted as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, John Greer was stationed near the demilitarized zone where he  flew numerous combat missions

In 1954, Greer joined IBM Corp until his eventual retirement in 1988.

Greer is survived by his wife, Ethel, sons W. Kirk and John, daughter Robyn G. Hallock, sister Sheila Duker and seven grandchildren.

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