In Memoriam: John Lothrop
John Lothrop (left) with teammate Art Senior at the 1982 Yonkers Marathon.
The Prospect Park Track Club lost one of its pillars of the last four decades on May 23, 2020. John Lothrop might not be a name well known to the newer and younger members of the club, but I'm here to tell you, he was one of the giants who ran the earth.
An undeniably good-looking man, John had an angular look to his features that you could imagine being carved right out of the Maine granite, where he eventually established his summer home. If you can visualize a blend of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, you'd be starting to get the idea.
John was a high school track and field star at Brookline High School, located just outside of Boston, and later competed for Boston University.
He was a serious, serious runner. And always concerned with how the club was performing in inter-club competitions. He was a soft-spoken, quiet man on the exterior, but there was a caring individual burning inside with endless concern about his fellow men and women, and ready to throw it down for the underprivileged at a moment’s notice. He was one of the original social justice warriors and he never changed.
His day job was as a probation officer for the City of New York for 27 years. This was preceded by a stint in the Peace Corp, where he met his wife Micaela. Mica, by the way, was also a terrific competitive runner. And she remains a strong, dynamic personality in her own right. You'll find Mica's name placed liberally among club results too.
I first became involved with PPTC in early September of 1983, when I wandered into one of Harry Murphy's Friday night hill workouts, chasing the likes of Art Senior, Bob Mueller, John Roselli, Mike Bruno, Tom Kampman and Eden Weiss through several monster loops of a half mile course that Coach Harry had chosen for its particular mercilessness. This led to trips up to Van Cortlandt Park on Sundays for 18 to 20-mile workouts, where I watched those same runners, along with John Sinclair, Jeff Keltz, Frank Noll, Regina Cahill and Claire Dougherty and others disappear ahead over the last couple of miles. I also ran Harry-led workouts with Nate Whiting, Bob Torchia, Manny Chosak, Tom Meany, Tom Byrnes and Harry McAlpine. That's just a bit of club history and a roll call that John would have wanted me to include.
But it wasn't until January 1st, 1984, at Harry's New Year's Day Handicap race that I met and briefly spoke with John for the first time. Yet it wasn't till April 29th of that year, that my journal records that I ran what I called my Turkey Trot workout (5.1 miles) and had "seen Paul Soskind and John Lothrop". The following day I ran two loops of the park, running the first loop with John. Thus began a long friendship, interrupted by distance at times, as I eventually moved in 1999 to upstate NY, and then out to New Mexico for seven years.
John and Eden Weiss worked together in the probation department and in the late 70's after Eden had begun working there, he recalled a tall, serious looking blonde man coming up to him and telling Eden that he'd heard he was "interested in running a marathon." And that was the beginning of another legendary friendship.
What can I say about John? He was one of the few people in my life who gained my respect from the start and kept it to the end and beyond. You can look up his club results if you still have any of the copies of the club newsletter from the 80's and 90's, or enter his name into any NYRRC web searches. A terrific age-group competitor, you could describe him as laconic at times, but he always let his running do the talking. I'll always be thankful to John for joining me to race in the Tom's River Law Day 10k in 1989, a year after my father passed suddenly during the same race.
The years lining up with John and Eden Weiss at races were the most enjoyable years of my running life. We talked about strategies and past running experiences over beers, adding so much to the pure enjoyment of running our hearts out.
John and Mica and Coreysha so kindly welcomed my daughters Dayna and Julia, their mother Janice and me, many times into their home. When I think of John, I think of warmth, caring, intelligence and passion, and I am here to tell you that I'm a better person for having run a few trials of miles with him.
I last ran with John in July of 1998, in Bangor ME, a morning workout after Eden and I had stayed at his and Mica's Maine place, before heading up to Maine Running Camp. I last spent time with John, at my daughter Dayna's baby shower, hosted in Brooklyn, by Janice, in August of 2019. It was wonderful to see him! Of course Mica (Dayna's godmother, btw) and Eden were there too.
My condolences to Micaela, Coreysha, his son-in-law Michael, and his grandchildren Halena and Ellis. God speed, John.
John's obituary and memory page can be found here.
Text by: Brad Hamann