Frances (Doyle) Klier is a swimming and diving official from Syracuse, New York. What makes Frances unique is that she is 95 years young and still going at it. For forty-nine years, Frances has been a swimming and diving official. She has now toned down her schedule a bit and no longer is doing swim meets all over the country as she once did. However, she is still an active official in Syracuse and has been doing it longer than any other official in our chapter and may be the oldest swim official in the country.

Her story in swimming is very interesting. When she graduated from high school, she had wished to become a physical education teacher. However, her father believed that girls should not be in sports and he would not support her wishes in going to college to become a physical education teacher. He told her he would support her in going to a business college.  So, not to disappoint her father she did what he asked and went to a business school in Adrian, Michigan. After college she worked at Notre Dame University and met her future husband Gene Klier. Gene was an excellent athlete and he and his brother Leo played on many of the college’s sports teams.  Right after Gene graduated from Notre Dame they got married and they raised six children.

Gene and Frances encouraged their children to be active in sports. However, sending their children to catholic schools did not permit them to be involved in swimming as the schools did not have pools. One day while Gene and Frances were staying at a motel with two of their children it happened. Mary Jo and Gene Ann witnessed kids and families swimming in the motel pool and having a good time. Neither of the girls could swim at that time but they told their parents that they wanted to learn to swim. When Gene Klier got home, he got in touch with a friend at Syracuse University and hired a Syracuse graduate student to teach the girls how to swim. It wasn’t long afterwards that the girls both became members of a Y-swim team and were competing in age group swim races. Gene and Frances then started a club team themselves at Drumlins golf course in Syracuse. It was then that Frances began her officiating career. They were always lacking certified officials so Frances took the necessary tests and soon was on her way. Years later, she and Gene were both instrumental in forming the Syracuse Chapter of swim officials. Gene became the first assignor as well.

As the story continued, five of the six Klier children all became competitive swimmers. Mary Jo and Gene Ann just missed making nationals by less than a second. Gene Ann, Kathleen, Jimmy and Mark all swam for Liverpool High School. Frances and Gene helped them all every step of the way.  After college at Syracuse University, Mary Jo became aquatic director at Northwood Pool in Syracuse and helped organize swim lessons there.  Some years later she was hired by Olympic swim coach Don Gambril in Kansas City, and she worked for him. She is now the swim coach at Kansas City Swim Academy. Gene Ann graduated from the University of Illinois is married and travels around the world with her husband. Kathleen graduated from LeMoyne College and teaches school in Solvay, NY. Frances’s son Jimmy graduated from Michigan State and works in NYC in the restaurant business. Her son Mark is a pediatrician in Rochester and her son John was a teacher and writer, and died in 2010. Her husband Gene passed away in 1999.

Frances kept herself busy in swimming as an official all the years that their children were growing up and attending college. With her husband working, she was the one that could travel and work swim meets both near and far away. She was called upon often to do league championships, sectionals, states and she continued to travel and even do some American Olympic trial competitions. One of her fondest memories was in doing the Olympic trials in the 200-meter backstroke in Long Beach, California, in 1976. She officiated John Nabor’s swim lane when he set a world record. Nabor then went on to the 1976 Olympics where he medaled as well.

For years Frances was a delegate to the National Convention, which was an elected position where the business of the AAU is decided. She was there working with the Junior Olympics as well.  In 2001, Frances received the Olympics Appreciation Certificate from IOC President Juan Antonio Samarach honoring her years of work and service.

Officials provide a critical role in any successful swim meet. Top-notch officials are honored throughout the year by two awards: The Maxwell Excellence Award for service and the Kenneth J. Pettigrew Award. The Kenneth J. Pettigrew Award was created to honor Ken Pettigrew, a swimming official who devoted over 30 years to swimming. Each year the recipient is chosen by the USA Swimming Officials Committee and the award is presented at their annual convention. In 1997, Dale Neuburger, then President of USA Swimming and currently the Vice-President of FINA (International Swimming Federation) gave this award to Frances Klier. Neuburger first met Frances in the 1960’s in Syracuse when he was the swim coach at Syracuse. He invited Frances to do many of his meets as well.

If you are interested in becoming a certified swimming official it is imperative that you acquire the proper skill set. Becoming a swim official takes a lot of hard work, but after getting a feel for your job, the experience can be rewarding. You never know who is out there watching and what it may lead to down the road. Just ask Frances and maybe you might have a similar career.