Morry Stillwell is most well known for serving as the President of U.S. Figure Skating. During his time as USFS president, a contract was signed with ABC that gave figure skating much publicity on television. $12 million dollars was given to U.S. Figure Skating annually through 2007. That contribution is Morry Stillwell's most important contribution to the sport of figure skating.
Before Morry Stillwell was an ice skater, he was a roller skater. Skating has brought much happiness to Morry Stillwell's life. He met his wife and has made friends from all over the world because of skating.
Morry Stillwell was born in Everett, Washington. He never left the state of Washington until he competed in his first Roller Skating National competition in Cincinnati.
In 1945, Morry Stillwell's father bought him a pair of white colored roller skates. He began skating at Skateland in Everett, Washington. His coaches were Herb Daisley and Joe Goller who came from Minniola, Washington.
Skateland changed owners, so Morry's skating was moved to Roller Bowl in Seattle. He trained with a group of skaters, who were "cross over skaters." Those "crossover skaters" did both ice and rollers. Morry was not interested in ice at the time since he was totally immersed in roller skating.
Morry enjoyed the friendships he made during his roller skating years.
Morry Stillwell skated dance in three different Roller Nationals: His first nationals was in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also competed in Richmond, Virginia, and in Pasadena, California. He enjoyed his trip to Pasadena very much. It was his first visit to California. Later, Morry moved to southern California.
Morry Stillwell stopped skating with his roller dance partner. Then, the "cross over roller-ice skating crowd" insisted he try to ice skate. He knew all the ice dances since the same dances are done on rollers. So, even though he could not really stand up on ice skates, he decided to try. He was approached quickly by a female ice dancer and was asked if he would like to compete. Almost nine months later, Morry Stillwell and his new ice dance partner, Marcia Dennison, won a bronze medal in Pacific Coast Bronze Dance.
He moved up to Silver Dance, but was drafted so he did not compete in Silver Dance.
After being drafted, Morry Stillwell was based at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. There was no ice in Huntsville, so he went back to roller skating for a time. While in Huntsville, he started an artistic roller figure skating club called the Rocket City Roller Club. It was still in existence several years after he got out of the army.
Morry met his wife, Elda, at the Polar Palace ice skating rink in Hollywood. He was sent to basic training in San Luis Obispo. He hitch hiked to Hollywood on the weekend to ice skate. When Elda stood next to the rail, he approached her at the rink and said, "Are you standing in a hole?" (Elda is very short.) They hit it off and were married when he was still in the army. Their wedding was in Beverly Hills. Most of the guests were ice or roller skaters. Morry and Elda Stillwell have been married since 1955.
Morry's wife, Elda, skated in the United States Figure Skating National Championships in dance with Bert Wright. Their daughter, Lisa Stillwell, competed in both Junior and Senior Dance at the United States National Figure Skating Championships.
Morry Stillwell has a university degree in engineering and business. He formed a California based company with offices in Macao, Lisbon, Portugal, Dalian, China. His company entered into joint ventures with foreign companies to create high tech factories manufacturing semiconductors, hybrid circuits, circuit boards and miniature ceramic capacitors. He is now retired.
Morry Stillwell is an instrument rated pilot and enjoys flying.
Before Morry Stillwell thought about being a USFSA Official, he was appointed a Roller Gold Dance Judge by Grace Nash. He still has the card proving he is a roller dance judge, but has never been invited to judge rollers.
There was a break in his skating activities after getting out of the Army. Elda and Morry became deeply involved in sport car racing. They both raced their Porsche Speedster and Elda drove an Austin Healy owned by Bob Miller, a Gold Level ice dancer. Elda and Morry won many trophies at sports car racing.
Elda then became involved with the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club and became Secretary of the club.
Morry decided it was time to get back in to the sport, but knew he was "over the hill" as far as competition was concerned. He was appointed as a Bronze Dance judge and wanted to advance to be a National Dance judge. He decided to work toward singles and pairs advancement instead of ice dance advancement because there had been some politics blocking him from becoming a National Ice Dance judge. He remembered that back in Seattle he had already been appointed as a low test figure judge, so he reactivated that path. It turned out that the blockage of his desire to be a National Dance Judge was the best thing that ever happened to him. The official figure skating positions that came to Morry Stillwell after that would never have come about without his shift to singles and pairs.
Some of the top officials in Northern California became his mentors and he advanced as a judge. It took almost twenty years from the time he got his low test figure appointment until he became a National Judge and National Referee.
Club Positions Held:
- President All Year Club
- President Los Angeles Figure Skating Club
USFSA Positions Held:
- Chair of the Membership Committee
- Chair of the Eligibility Committee
- Chair of Long Range Planning Committee
- Chair of the Competition Committee
- Pacific Coast Vice President
- USFSA President
ISU Activities:
Morry Stillwell organized the ISU Grand Prix circuit along with the Presidents of Skate Canada, French Figure Skating Federation, German Federation, Japanese Federation, Figure Skating Federation or Russia.Morry Stillwell was the Chair of the ISU Grand Prix Management Commission for five years.
