By Nell Schwed
After forty-two years at Columbia University, Ken Torrey retires as associate athletics director for physical education in June of this year. Torrey’s tenure was celebrated this April at the annual end of season banquet for Columbia’s squash program.
Torrey was the first head coach of Columbia’s club squash team—which he helped to establish in 1977; now, both the men’s and women’s teams rank in the country’s top ten. Torrey served for fourteen years with the squash team, transitioning into upper level administration of Columbia athletics, but never abandoned his starting place. Overseeing such milestones as the introduction of a women’s club team in 2006, the move to varsity status in 2009, the university’s partnership with StreetSquash cemented in 2008, Torrey remained a necessary component in the growth and development of Columbia’s squash program.
“Ken was never the ‘glory’ guy,” Paul Assaiante, a fellow college squash coach, said. “Never the man out in front, but always the man who spoke from the heart and led with passion and unbridled energy. He will leave a wide wake, one which we should all aspire to sail in.”
Torrey’s presence was felt in all areas of squash-life: running clinics and directing squash for the Englewood Field Club, serving as an officer in the then-National Intercollegiate Squash Racquets Association (now the College Squash Association) and president from 1979-82. To put a cap on Torrey’s legacy, a head coaching positon for Columbia’s squash team was endowed in his name at the end of the 2008 season.
