Joan Tozzer

Joan Tozzer
Full name	Joan Tozzer Cave
nation	United States
birthday	September 19, 1921
place of birth	Boston , Massachusetts ,  United States
date of death	April 15, 2012
Place of death	Dedham , Massachusetts,  United States
Career
discipline	Single run
Partner	Bernard Fox
society	SC of Boston
End of career	1940
Medal table
North American Championships 1 × 1 × 0 × US championships 6 × 0 × 1 ×
North American Championships silver Toronto 1939 Ladies gold Toronto 1939 Couples American championships bronze Chicago 1937 Couples gold Philadelphia 1938 Ladies gold Philadelphia 1938 Couples gold St. Paul 1939 Ladies gold St. Paul 1939 Couples gold Cleveland 1940 Ladies gold Cleveland 1940 Couples

Joan Tozzer (married name Spalding , Lincoln and Cave ) (born September 19, 1921 in Boston , Massachusetts ; died April 15, 2012 in Dedham , Massachusetts) was an American figure skater who competed in both individual and pair skating .

Career

Tozzer was the daughter of the anthropologist and Harvard professor Alfred Tozzler and his wife Margaret Castle, a missionary daughter from Hawaii . She had her first contact with figure skating at the age of three, when her father used a garden hose to create an ice rink in her garden at home in winter. It soon became apparent that she had both enthusiasm and talent for the sport, and so she joined the prestigious Skating Club of Boston , one of the oldest figure skating clubs in the United States.

The regional press first noticed them when Tozzer was ten years old. A performance in which she appeared as Minnie Mouse (alongside her longtime friend Polly Blodgett as Mickey ) received positive reviews. In 1934 she started at American youth championships in individual runs and was able to win the title.

Tozzer started pair skating with Bernard Fox . During a performance tour of the two to London in 1935, she broke her leg. However, the injury did not have any long-term consequences. In the following year, the couple won the US Junior Championships.

In 1937 Tozzer and Fox started in the seniors for the first time and were able to achieve third place at the championships in Chicago straight away (behind the couples Vinson / Hill and Madden / Madden ). In the individual competition, Tozzer was still eligible to start with the juniors, where she secured the gold medal.

The year 1938 produced several contenders for the US championship in the individual run, as the dominant athlete of the past ten years, Maribel Vinson , had switched to the professional camp shortly before and no longer competed. Surprisingly, Tozzer was able to prevail against the favored Audrey Peppe by only a tenth of a point . She was the first American figure skater who managed to win the junior championships and the senior championships the following year. This feat was repeated by Mirai Nagasu in 2007/2008 .

In addition to her individual success, Tozzer also won the pair skating event with Fox in 1938. She was able to repeat this double success in the two following years. Her only international successes she celebrated in 1939 at the North American Championships in Toronto . In addition to gold in pair skating, she secured the silver medal in the individual competition behind the Canadian Mary Rose Thatcher .

Tozzer was nominated as captain of the US ice skating team for the 1940 Winter Olympics , which were to take place in Sapporo , Japan . Due to the war-related cancellation of the Games, however, she was denied Olympic honors.

Later years

In 1940 Tozzer ended her sporting career at the age of 18, married Philip Spalding Jr. and moved to Honolulu with him . After the marriage was divorced, she married William Ames Lincoln in 1952 and moved with him back to Massachusetts, to Chestnut Hill . After Lincoln's death in 1969, she married one last time. Her third husband, Edward Cave, an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital , died in 1976.

Tozzer also excelled as a philanthropist , supporting art projects and hospitals. She was interested in sports and card games, particularly bridge and cribbage, throughout her life .

She had seven children, one of whom, however, died of flu at the age of seven . Although her children learned to ice skate, Tozzer never pushed her into an athletic career. At the time of her death, she had 14 grandchildren and as many great-grandchildren.

In February 2012 Tozzer was a guest at the 100th anniversary of their club SC of Boston . A few months later she died in a nursing home in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Honors

In 1997 Tozzer was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame .

Her association, the SC of Boston , set up the Joan Tozzer Award for the child from the club who has improved the most in a year. The award winners include the future Olympic champion Tenley Albright .

Results

Single run

Competition / year	1937	1938	1939	1940
North American Championships			2.
American championships		1.	1.	1.

Pair skating

(with Bernard Fox )

Competition / year	1937	1938	1939	1940
North American Championships			1.
American championships	3.	1.	1.	1.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Portrait at iceskatingintnl.com , accessed on July 6, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} portrait on bostonglobe.com , accessed on July 6, 2017
3. ↑ James R. Hines: Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating. Scarecrow Press, 2011, p. 224, ISBN 0-810-87085-1 ( online )
4. ↑ ^{a b} Obituary on staradvertiser.com , accessed on July 6, 2017
5. ↑ Member List United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame, accessed July 6, 2017