Amherst Golf Club regrets the passing of local legend, Coach Tracy Mehr. Among his many accomplishments was winning the 1971 Massachusetts Amateur Golf Championship at age 43, the first state amateur based out of Western Mass. As a result of the win, he was able play in international amateur invitationals and with the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gene Littler and Billy Casper.He was born in Wisconsin, graduated from College of the Holy Cross in 1950, and was a Marine vet of the Korean War. He married his wife Carol in 1958 and had five children.
He was a football coach at Boston College and then moved to western Mass in 1965 to coach at Amherst College, when he retired as coach in 2001. He won the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston’s Lifetime Contribution to Football award (John Baronian Award) in 2011. He mentored Don Faulstick, Amherst’s Director of Athletics, and E.J. Mills, Head Football Coach, when they joined the staff in 1997.
He became Amherst College head golf coach for the Men’s and Women’s teams in 1970, and was assisted and eventually succeeded after 1990 by Jack Arena and Michelle Morgan . . . they all helped build Amherst College golf into one of the finest Division III programs in the country. He was head coach when the women’s golf team won the Division III national championship in 1990. He was active with NCAA golf committee and tournament work, and participated on the Amherst Golf Club’s greens committee as recently as 2013. An Amherst, Massachusetts resident, he was inducted into the Western Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame in 2013.
Carl Vigeland, our local author and past President of Amherst Golf Club, said of Tracy, “Even after retiring, he never stopped teaching. Among his many lessons, he reminded me years ago to leave the course better than I found it. You could say that about his life. Wherever he went, with whomever he spent time, he left people feeling better than they did before. His generosity and kindness knew no bounds.” Additional quotes by Jack Arena, Michelle Morgan, Don Faulstick and E.J. Mills remembering Coach Mehr, along with some additional photos, are provided on the Amherst College athletics site.
Details for his memorial will be provided by his family.
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