Pictured, from left, are Warsaw Community Schools’ Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert, Judy Willman and Jennifer Huffman. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Adkins.

By Liz Adkins
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The daughter and granddaughter of Olympian Joe Rantz spoke with Warsaw Community Schools’ fifth-graders on Sept. 11 as part of the district’s speaker series.

Rantz was a member of the University of Washington rowing team who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. The team won a gold medal.

In 2006, when WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert was a history teacher, his class sent a letter to Rantz and received a response from Rantz and his daughter, Judy Willman. This letter from Warsaw students began the process of Willman working to preserve her father’s story by working with author Daniel James Brown on writing “The Boys in the Boat,” which was published in 2013 and has sold over four million copies.

Rantz passed away in 2007 at the age of 93.

In 2023, “The Boys in the Boat” was released as a biographical sports drama movie directed by George Clooney.

During the speaker series event, Willman highlighted her father’s Olympic story, his struggles growing up, and the impact of Warsaw students in her father’s story.

Willman told students she felt her father’s story was important, discussing the struggles of United States citizens during the 1930s.

Rantz’s mother died before he turned four. Following her passing, Rantz’s father struggled to cope with her loss and sent Rantz to live with an aunt that he didn’t know in Pennsylvania.

He later moved back in with his father and stepmother, but was 15 when the Great Depression happened. Rantz was left behind in an unfinished home abandoned by his family.

“He had a decision to make,” said Willman. “Would he live his life as a victim or as a survivor? The choice he made was that he would be a survivor. He would make his way on his own and finish school somehow. After spending his first 15 years of life being treated as disposable, with any trust in family or loyalty constantly crushed, he would never again allow himself to trust his future to anyone.”

Willman described her father as “adventurous, creative and supportive.”

“The thing that is really important in life is not what you possess, but how you treat the people around you,” said Willman. “Once I asked Dad why he kept coming back to crew, to all that pain and crushing effort. I expected him to say it was because he needed the job the university provided for crew members, but that’s not what he said. What he said was simply, ‘They needed me.'”

Willman’s daughter and Rantz’s granddaughter, Jennifer Huffman, joined Willman and Hoffert for a Q&A session following Willman’s presentation.

Both Willman and Huffman described “The Boys in the Boat”‘s book release as “surreal,” with Willman noting she would frequently see it at airports when it first came out.

When asked what advice she believed her father would give to Warsaw’s fifth-graders, Willman said, “If you have dreams, keep them in your sights.”

Willman and Huffman’s time at WCS was described as a “full-circle moment,” showing the family that Rantz’s story would not be forgotten.