Remembering Bill Deni

Our WSO is saddened by the news that NY Masters Hall of Fame member Bill Deni has passed away. Bill was an outstanding weightlifting and was instrumental on contributing to the growth of Masters weightlifting. Below are some words from David Meltzer and Bill's daughter Lara.

From David Meltzer: 

"Bill Deni has died at the age of 98; he was one of the all-time greatest Masters weightlifters and a friend of mine for over 30 years. I'm sharing below the moving remembrance posted by Lara, Bill's daughter."

From Lara:

"Bill was a 14-time Masters World Champion who set many records and also made important contributions to the Masters weightlifting community. It was Bill's motion at the 1982 USA Masters annual meeting that led to the creation of a Masters "Olympic Weightlifting only" national championships, no longer sharing the platform with another sport as it had done for its first 7 years.

And, it is Bill Deni we have to thank for the creation of the American Masters Championships (now known as the "Howard Cohen American Masters" in honor of our long-time national chairman). Back in the early 1990s when Walter Imahara was National Masters Chairman, he, Bill, and I would regularly train together in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and then go out to dinner on Friday nights. It was at one of these dinners in early 1994 that Bill came up with the idea for a new national-level Masters meet to supplement the National Masters Championships, which had been held every year since 1975.

Bill suggested we call this new meet the "American Masters Championships" since, at that time, there was a senior-level national meet with a similar name. Bill's idea was that this would be a low-pressure meet without qualifying totals that could potentially attract a broad group of Masters and could also provide an opportunity to post qualifying totals for our international Masters competitions as well as for the National Masters Championships. We held the first American Masters Championships in Baton Rouge in December, 1994, and it's been an enormous success ever since, solidifying its role as one of the two national-level Masters-only meets that USA Masters Weightlifting has organized every year for over 30 years.

The next time you compete or officiate at the Howard Cohen American Masters take a moment to remember Bill Deni, the man whose inspired idea led to its birth."