Meet The Author: Tom Gompf

There’s something special about being born on one of the biggest party days of the year. Tom Gompf is a St. Patrick’s Day baby (though he’s now 83), and the irony of his birthdate is not lost on him. 

“I’m not Irish,’’ he likes to say, “but I’ve enjoyed the luck of the Irish my whole life.’’ 

Make no mistake about it, Gompf has enjoyed a full life, from his childhood at the YMCA pool every summer day in Dayton, Ohio, to becoming an All-American diver in college, to winning a bronze medal in diving in the Olympics, to becoming both a military and commercial pilot, to having friends in most countries around the world. 

And now Gompf has written a book with Elaine K. Howley of Boston about his Irish-lucky life called A Life Aloft, published in November 2021. The 260-page effort was a fund-raiser for the Raymond C. Rude Supporting Foundation, named for the man who developed with Gompf the world’s leading diving boards, and which has donated money to worthwhile causes worldwide. 

The book has been an Amazon bestseller in several categories. 

“I am happy with the way the book turned out,’’ Gompf acknowledged. “Of all the stories in the book, there are probably another 10 stories for each one of those items that are worth telling. 

“What’s in the book is kind of highlights from my life, which has been pretty amazing.’’

No matter how far away from his humble beginnings, Gompf has never strayed too far from his first real love -- diving. And that has been the springboard to everything else that has happened to him.

As the Rude Foundation president, Gompf’s effort to support the sport of has never wavered. 

“You could say diving is ground zero for me,’’ Gompf said. “I keep coming back to it every day. 

“Even my flying, I think, was easier because of my background in diving.’’ 

The youngest of four children, Gompf spent time during summer vacations with half-sister Catherine at the Dayton YMCA. She would sunbathe and Tom would stay in the water for hours. Gompf’s passion for diving came out of boredom in the pool. It was not long before he found his way to the diving board there.

“You can only play tag and go down the slide so many times,’’ Gompf said, laughing. 

Little did he realize what he had discovered.

He never looked back. 

For him, it was opening a door to a life that extends well beyond Lakeland, Fla., where he lives today with his wife, Fran. 

At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, while he was on loan from the Air Force, Gompf won a bronze medal in the 10-meter platform diving event. A year later, he was back flying combat missions in a C-130 Hercules during a 20-month stint in Vietnam.

But his mind was never off diving for very long.

Gompf captured numerous AAU and NCAA diving championships as well as the World Professional High Diving Championship in 1970 and ’71. He spent almost a decade coaching more than two dozen All-American divers at the University of Miami (Fla.), including Greg Louganis, an Olympic gold medalist. 

In 1976 and ‘84, Gompf was the team manager for the U.S. Olympic Diving Team. He served on the United States Olympic Committee’s Executive Board of Directors from 1977 through 2000 and was a member of the FINA Technical Diving Committee for international competition from ’88 to 2000.

Gompf was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an honor contributor in 2002. 

“I feel like I had a big impact on world diving,’’ Gompf said. “Diving, for me, went hand-in-hand with the trampoline and gymnastics. It allowed me to coach a college team, an Olympic team, and leave a mark on my sport for a long time.’’ 

In 2010, he was awarded the USOC Foundation’s George Steinbrenner Sports Leadership Award for those efforts.

For more than 30 years, Gompf flew commercial planes, beginning with National Airlines and concluding with Delta. 

“I am thrilled I could do all the things I’ve done,” Gompf said.

“I didn’t make a whole lot of money except for my flying, but diving will be better when I leave it behind than when I got into it.”

Gompf was behind the addition of synchronized diving in the Olympics, as well as improvements to the way diving is judged.

“I feel like I ticked off a lot of the goals I had in my life,’’ Gompf said. “The book was a way to put my life into some kind of order.’’

His one regret in diving is he came along too soon. 

The pre-video age made it much tougher for athletes to observe their techniques without waiting several weeks for film to be processed. By then, Gompf said, the moment was gone, and any bad habits could not be so quickly addressed. Athletes in all sports today can immediately begin working on fixing their technique. 

“I had no idea how I looked while I was performing,’’ he said. “Now, divers do a dive, climb out of the pool and you can see exactly what you did wrong while you’re still wet. I wish I could have done that. 

“I took a golf lesson one time, and the instructor showed me on his phone what my swing looked like frame-by-frame. I’m envious of today’s divers.’’ 

Those same divers should be envious of the life Gompf has had because they are reaping benefits from it every day. His decades-long influence on their sport has proven to do what he said he wanted to do by leaving it better than he found it. 

They’re the ones benefitting from his luck-of-the-Irish life.