Prindiville Retires From Manchester (CT) T-Day Race

PRINDIVILLE RETIRES FROM MANCHESTER ROAD RACE

By David Monti, @d9monti

(c) 2015 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

(Used with permission)



(11-Jun)
-- Dr. David Prindiville, a past president of the Manchester Road Race Committee and

 the longtime elite athlete coordinator for the event, is
retiring from the race after 37 years, organizers announced.  

A retired oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Prindiville is relocating from
Manchester to the Cape Cod area later this month.



The Thanksgiving Day road race began to experience problems in the 1970's when the 

popularity of distance running surged, and the event's
organizers were unable to keep pace with demands posed by increasingly larger 

fields.  The 1977 Manchester Road Race was marred by a lack of
facilities and staff, and the long line of runners who had to wait to
cross the finish line and have their times recorded.



Prindiville,a recreational runner and local resident, responded by founding the 

Manchester Road Race Committee later that year with Dr. Eamon Flanagan
and Atty. Richard MacKenzie.  The group took over operational control of the race, 

recruited hundreds of additional volunteers, implemented new
finishing chutes and an improved timing system, and solicited elite runners to 

enhance the race's status.  The MRR is now regarded as one of
America's premier road races.  Approximately 15,000 runners registered
to compete last year.



"Dave's contributions to our race during the past four decades have been 

incalculable, and we are tremendously grateful to him," said Dr. Tris Carta in a 



statement.  Carta succeeded Prindiville as President of the road race committee.

 "He put his heart and his soul into this race and helped transform it 

into the highly popular, world-class event that it is today.  It is an 

understatement to say that he will be missed."



Prindiville succeeded Flanagan as head of the road race committee in 1990, and held

 the post for 16 years.
He then served as the race's elite athlete coordinator through last year, and led 

the group's sponsor development committee.  Under his
stewardship, the race contributed more than $1 million to local charities.



A graduate of the University of Connecticut and the Tufts University School of 

Dental Medicine, Prindiville was a football
player and field event performer in high school.  He took up running in 1970 after 

reading a book by Ken Cooper, and competed in the
Thanksgiving Day run several times before becoming involved with its leadership.  

His son, Brendan, was a standout runner at Brown University
who finished among the top 25 finishers at the MRR six times.



Prindiville was awarded the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce's Community 

Achievement Award in 2007 for his contributions to the race.  He is also
a recipient of the Manchester Sports Hall of Fame Joe McCluskey Award, which is 

named for the Olympic medalist and Manchester native who won
the race four times.