Tori Murden

Victoria Murden McClure (born March 6, 1963) is an athlete, adventurer, chaplain, lawyer, and university administrator who was the first woman and the first American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, which she did in 1999. She was also the first woman and first American to ski to the geographic South Pole and the first woman to climb the Lewis Nunatak in the Antarctic. She was the president of Spalding University, a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky, for 25 years until her retirement in 2024. She also served as the Chair of the Board of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), an outdoor education school headquartered in Lander, Wyoming, that emphasizes environmental ethics and wilderness excursions.

Early life and education

McClure was born in Brooksville, Florida and as a child moved to Connecticut and then to Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen, she moved in with her grandmother in Louisville, Kentucky, to attend the Louisville Collegiate School from which she graduated in 1981. She went on to Smith College, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1985. She followed that with a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School in 1989, a J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1995, and a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Spalding University.

Solo row across the Atlantic

Thirty-six years old at the time, she rowed for eighty-one days, traveling , starting from the Canary Islands and finishing at Guadeloupe on December 3, 1999. Her boat, ''Pearl'', was twenty-three feet long, four feet high, and six feet wide and weighed about 1800 pounds. It was her second trip across the ocean, her first one cut short due to the hurricane season in 1998.

She wrote a memoir about her experiences, ''A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean'', published by HarperCollins in 2009.
She is also noted for her 700-mile ski across the South Pole (the first woman to ski to the South Pole), and she was the first woman to climb the Lewis Nunatak in the Antarctic.

Career

McClure has also worked as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital, the executive director of a shelter for homeless women, and a public policy analyst for the Mayor of Louisville, and she worked for the boxer and humanitarian Muhammad Ali. On June 1, 2010, she became the president of Spalding University, which is located in Louisville.Spalding University President Search
/ref> She is the chair of the Board of the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Honors and awards

* 1988 – First woman and first American to reach the summit of the Lewis Nunatak in the Antarctic
* 1989 – First woman and first American to ski to the geographic South Pole
* 1989 – Named a Hopkin's Scholar at Harvard University
* 1999 – First woman and first American to row across the Atlantic
* 1999 – Received Kentucky Derby Festival's Silver Horse Shoe Award for courage, determination, and community service
* 2000 – Received special Victor Award, given annually by the National Academy of Sports Editors to outstanding athletes
* 2000 – Received the Peter Bird Trophy for Tenacity and Perseverance from the Ocean Rowing Society International
* 2000 – Honored^{In what way?} by European Academy of Sport

References

Resources

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External links

A Pearl in the Storm Official Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murden, Tori
Living people
1963 births
American female rowers
American women academic administrators
Louisville Collegiate School alumni
Spalding University alumni
Smith College alumni
Harvard Divinity School alumni
University of Louisville alumni
People from Brooksville, Florida
People from Louisville, Kentucky
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American explorers
Female polar explorers
American academic administrators
South Pole
21st-century American academics
21st-century American women academics
20th-century American sportswomen