Ed Lickiss – CRCA Hall of Fame Class of 2007
Ed Lickiss entered the University of California in 1937 and began rowing for famed coach Ky Ebright. He had a successful sculling career before enlisting in the Army Air Corps for WWII. After the war he worked as an electrical contractor. He came back to rowing in 1960 when he established the Lake Merritt Rowing Club. He became the coach, director, fund raiser, and boatwright of the club.
In 1964 Ed co-founded the National Women’s Rowing Association and organized the first Women’s National Championship Regatta. In the same year Ed established a women’s crew at Mills College and a year later he established and personally funded a crew at St. Mary’s College and began a life-long commitment to that program.
In 1974-75 Ed retired from collegiate coaching to concentrate his efforts on high school rowing. He firmly believed that the sport of rowing could be used as a vehicle to assist teenagers in that transition from adolescence to adulthood. He established the Oakland Strokes Rowing Club that was open to all high school aged boys and girls.