Richard Dickson
Richard Dickson was a dedicated contributor to the Greater Napanee area through his involvement in the local sports scene. His many contributions included membership on organizing committees and coaching fastball teams and hockey teams within the South Lennox region.
Richard passed away on October 20, 2005 after battling lung cancer. His photo, along with his accomplishments and achievements, can be found on the Greater Napanee Sports Wall of Fame located at the Strathcona Paper Centre. Some of Richard's activities were: Chairman of the Fairgrounds Sports Complex Committee, Softball Napanee executive from 1980 to 1998 and executive member of the South Lennox Minor Hockey League for four years.
When not attending committee meetings he was coaching teams at Canadian championships across the country. In 1996, Richard coached the Napanee Junior fastball team to a Canadian Championship title and, in 1998, his Junior team achieved a Silver medal. In 2002, Richard was co-chairman of the Softball Napanee committee that worked toward bringing the Midget Boys' Canadian FastPitch Championships back to Napanee, twenty years after the organization first hosted and won the event. Richard was very involved in Napanee's hosting of that first national championship in 1982 as well as others in 1988 and 1992.
Richard Dickson was an encouraging and prominent face of sport and recreation in the community, a positive role model to the way sport should be represented.
Terry Gray
Terry Gray was a role model for all local area athletes as he not only played and coached competitive softball in the Napanee area, but he also participated in a post-secondary varsity sport. He attended school in Canton, New York where he was a member of a National Championship hockey team.
Terry coached and played within the Napanee and North Fredericksburgh fastball programs from 1977 to 2005. He successfully coached the 1986 North Fred Junior Kings to a Canadian Championship in St. John's, Newfoundland. In 1989, he was involved with Olympic Sport as he co-coached Team Ontario to the Gold Medal at the Canada Summer Games in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. That same summer, he also coached the North Fred Junior Kings to a Silver Medal at the 1989 Canadian Championships in Miramichi, New Brunswick.
It seems that any team or sport that Terry touched, or was a part of in any way, was a team that was going to be successful. Terry received a diagnosis of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, on April 5, 2005 at 41 years of age. However, that did not hold Terry back from co-coaching the 2005 Napanee Pee Wee Express fastball team to a Gold Medal in the Eastern Canadian Championship in Pasadena, Newfoundland.
Terry also took an active role in the planning and the actual construction of the North Fredericksburgh Sports Complex and organized fastball clinics for local children. These are just two examples of Terry's commitment and desire to make a difference within the sport and recreation community. The Napanee sporting community lost one of its most valuable players when Terry passed away on August 22, 2008 at age forty-four.