OUR BOARD
PRESIDENT RUTH JOHNSON
PRESIDENT-ELECT Trice Hirr
PRESIDENT-ELECT Trice Hirr
- I grew up in Newtown, CT and loved swimming as a child at our town park. I swam in Middle and High school but decided to go to a college that didn’t have swimming. I swam now and again for recreational reasons but nothing more until I moved to the villages. In between I became a Christian, wife, mom, grandmother, and an engineer. Most of my adult life was centered around my 3 daughters who are all mothers now. My second marriage came with 2 more kids, and a full family life since 2002.
- My career for the past 25 years or so has been as an engineer for Westinghouse Electric Company servicing and building nuclear power plants. Throughout my adult life I worked in various jobs; an owner of a day care and a small store, drove a school bus, made drums in a factory, bagged apples at a local farm, and mowed the sides of the road and various other odd jobs for the town maintenance department. Yup I’m a jack of all sort of things.
- I have also enjoyed being a member of the First Responder / Rehab team (auxiliary) for the fire department (secretary), American Legion Riders (secretary) and Women in Nuclear.
- My husband and I moved to the villages in 2021, I was working ‘remote’ and was told I could work from anywhere… and so here we are! I found out about VAST and decided to try out. Since then, I have never looked back as I love being part of this group of wonderful athletes.
PRESIDENT-ELECT Trice Hirr
PRESIDENT-ELECT Trice Hirr
PRESIDENT-ELECT Trice Hirr
- My mother claimed I learned to swim by osmosis, watching my two older brothers during their swim lessons. A camp counselor once described me as a shy little girl—until it came to swim time! I began competing with our local YMCA team at 13, by 15, I was getting paid to teach and at 18, was the first female lifeguard ever hired by the Detroit Area Metro Parks to work at one of their beaches where I met and married a fellow lifeguard 55 years ago!
- My love for swimming became my career. I graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in Recreation Administration, after competing on the university’s swim team. Over the years, I worked for city recreation departments, YMCAs, school systems, and private aquatic facilities—all while raising three very athletically involved children. I often joked that I lived in a blue van. The first day my youngest child began preschool, I hit the pool to return to competitive swimming, joining USMS at the age of 34.
- As time passed, Michigan winters grew increasingly long and cold, our children left the area, and we began planning for retirement. While I had often declared, “I will never live in Florida,” our first visit to The Villages completely changed my mind. We purchased our first home in November 2002 and moved there full-time in April 2006. And yes, we are those people your realtor told you about and are now in our 3rd home. Wherever we live, my top priority remains finding a USMS team to join, and for the past 19 years, VAST has been that incredible community for me.
- P.S. Those three children have since blessed us with 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren!
TREASURER BILL RUSS
PRESIDENT-ELECT Trice Hirr
SECRETARY GAIL GROSSMAN
- I grew up in St Louis County, MO. I swam in high school and received a partial scholarship to St Louis University, where I swam for three years, mainly in freestyle sprints and relays.
- I was employed at McDonnell Douglas Corporation in the Corporate Accounting Division- Financial Reporting Section and retired in 1992. I moved to The Villages in 1999 and was one of the eight original members, along with current Associate Members JoAnn Fowler and Betty Senter.
- Additionally, I have served as the VAST Treasurer for 8 different VAST Presidents over a span of 17 years.
SECRETARY GAIL GROSSMAN
MEMBER AT LARGE MICHELLE BEKOFF
SECRETARY GAIL GROSSMAN
- I began my swimming career in middle school swimming for a Club Team in Maryland. When my family moved to Miami, I swam for my high school swim team and got my varsity letter(s) in swimming. I also swam on an AAU swim team, and I played water polo.
- I attended college at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri but the University did not have a women’s swim team, so I swam on the men’s team for two years. I founded the women’s swim team and was Captain of the women’s swim team, high point swimmer, and voted most valuable swimmer. I lettered in swimming all four years in college.
- While attending law school at Georgetown University I swam on the D.C. Master’s Swim team during my third year of law school. After graduating from law school, I returned to Miami and swam on a Master’s Swim Team.
- When I moved to The Villages in 2011, I joined the VAST team and have swum with VAST ever since.
- Professionally, after graduating from Georgetown University Law School, I moved back to Miami where I clerked for a Circuit Court Judge and was a Law Clerk/Bailiff for one year. I then served as an Assistant State Attorney, in Miami, prosecuting all types of felony cases. I left the State Attorney’s Office and founded my own law firm and was in private practice for 26 years in Miami, specializing in criminal defense law. During this time period I also sat as Traffic Magistrate for three years hearing thousands of traffic infraction cases.
- When I moved to The Villages, I served, for 6 years, as an Assistant Public Defender in both Ocala and Bushnell before going back into private practice and reopening my law firm. I am still practicing law today specializing in criminal defense.
- I am honored to serve as VAST Secretary.
MEMBER AT LARGE MICHELLE BEKOFF
MEMBER AT LARGE MICHELLE BEKOFF
MEMBER AT LARGE MICHELLE BEKOFF
