By by Billie Jean King
I write today with heaviness in my heart. For the Cedar Crest College community, the town, her husband Joseph, her daughter — appropriately named Hope — and her sister Mary, I share this loss. We have lost a champion, a winner in every sense of the word, and have gained so much in knowing her.
Dorothy G. Blaney, who died on Monday, had served as chair of the board of trustees of the Women's Sports Foundation. I had the honor of meeting her in 1999, when she swept me off my feet with her passion and smarts. I loved her optimism, her style and her willingness to ask the important questions.
We started out together discussing philosophical issues about women and leadership and went on from there. Obviously, tennis came into the conversation as well! Over the years she became a wise friend and a great sounding board for me and the organization. At board meetings we would continually talk about what winning meant, and Dorothy used her many talents to steer us towards winning consistently and with efficiency.
Dorothy was all about equity, excellence and inclusion. Over the seven years of her leadership, she taught our board and our organization deeper meanings of these qualities. Her determination and energy brought us to where we are today.
I had the chance to see Dorothy last month when she was undergoing treatment at the National Institutes of Health. While a patient, Dorothy was still teaching, still leading and delivering grace with her words.
I was amazed at her hope, optimism and her willingness to share the reality of her condition with others, so they could learn from her.
I was very proud to receive an honorary degree at Cedar Crest College from Dorothy in 2002. I loved how she had the student athletes walk in to the auditorium with their athletic uniforms. She truly lived the message of a fit mind, body and spirit as a leader on the campus.
Her discipline and focus led directly to the building of a state-of-the-art swimming pool at the Rodale Aquatic Center and the Healthy U program at Cedar Crest, in which the college community is engaged in healthy life style and activity choices. She herself swam whenever she could and relished in the strength she felt — and how it enabled her to fit into her leather pants when she wanted.
When I think about Dorothy, I do think about tennis, but I think also about love and service; her gifts of service as a board member to the various non profits she helped, as a mentor to many, and as a leader in higher education; her gifts of love for women and girls were shown every day in her work at the campus and through her commitment to the success of the WSF.
Her love of tennis was shared often in her op-ed column in The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call. One of the gifts I was able to share with her last summer was our mutual love of Wimbledon.
When she was first going through cancer treatments in 2004, I said, "When you get through this, let's enjoy Wimbledon together next year." She used this image for focus through the struggle of her treatments, and what a gift it was to see her there watching the great match between Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport.
I so appreciated her last column (April 30), in which she talked about keeping her eye on the ball. I will remember this message as all of us at the WSF focus on the next steps for the organization and our society. Dorothy did win on so many counts for us.
One of her goals was to have a building to showcase all of women's sports — a museum of the legacy and the future of women's sports. At our recent board meeting in June, this project was approved and will open in 2008 in New York City. I am so pleased that before she passed away, she knew it would be built — in both of our honors.
We won, Dorothy. And in your spirit and memory, we will keep our eye on the ball.