Al Stork
July 2, 1953 – Feb 8, 2020
Al’s passion was coaching lifters. He had great success over the last 12 years that I knew him. His greatest pupil, Karen Campbell, is the greatest female bencher in history with a 512.5 in a Single Ply weighing 194lbs. She also deadlifted 512.5 and her two-lift total is the highest in history of any federation. He and Karen eventually married on November 30, 2019. They loved and worshipped each other. It was a match made in heaven. I tested Karen Campbell 6 times and she passed every test. Al also coached Rob Golgano who benched 804.5 at 259 and Seth Reed who benched 705 at age 21 at 220. Al’s intensity for coaching however was the same for the least accomplished lifter as it was for the most accomplished. Both Al and Karen are in the WABDL Hall of Fame.
I went to Al’s 250-acre farm 4 times – twice I stayed there for a month. We would sit around his old wooden stove in the morning for coffee and discuss WABDL, training and life in general. Whatever job or endeavor Al undertook was to the hilt. That’s what Al expected of his lifters. His number one priority was for Stork’s Power to win the WABDL Worlds. They finished 3rd twice. He was very generous to his lifters – paying many of his team members expenses to Worlds and the World Cup in Wisconsin Dells. Some of those same team members took advantage of his generosity which hurt him deeply. Al still has the Maine High School Basketball scoring record of 44 points set way back in 1972. He received a Track and Field scholarship from Villanova University for Cross Country. He had the most popular night club in Maine in the most popular tourist destination in Maine – Bar Harbor. He lived in Scotland for two years working as a bouncer in clubs and trying to educate himself on the Finer Things of managing a night club. He owned a very successful dry wall company in Miami, and he benched 650lbs in a Single Ply shirt in 1990 when nobody was benching over 720.
Al played college basketball at the University of Maine Fort Kent and was starting as a freshman. He majored in Business Administration. The only enemies Al had were those that dogged it who worked for him or trained under him. He demanded excellence through hard work. He was attracted to physical excellence and strength. His mother told me that Al would totally collapse at the end of many of his cross-country races. Cross country racers are supposed to pace themselves and be in the middle of the pack and then turn it on at the end. But not Al. He was the pace guy at the beginning and still had enough gas to turn it on at the end setting two high school national records that stood for 30 years and some Maine state records that still stand. That’s how Al lived his life. He didn’t pace himself – he wanted to be in first place the whole race – in life he was in 1st place his whole life. That’s probably what killed him at a relatively early age of 67. Al never rested or paced himself – he was 110% from wakeup to bedtime.
When I had my open-heart surgery on January 16, 2009, I was in the hospital for 24 days due to complications. I got out February 9 and was on my back at home until Feb 26. Al called me because he knew I was going to leave Minneapolis Feb 27 and drive to 4 consecutive meets on March 2, March 9, March 16 and March 23 in Missoula, Montana, Tri cities Washington, Chico, California and Dallas, Texas and then back to Minneapolis – 5,000 miles. Al didn’t want me to drive alone so he came with me to make sure I could make it. The first day I fell asleep at the wheel twice and Al took the wheel. We survived fierce windstorms, a Donner Pass snowstorm, Oklahoma tornados – two of them and a Kansas rainstorm with visibility so bad we didn’t know whether we were in Kansas or Oklahoma. Al and I went on another 3000 miles road trip after the 2009 Worlds in Reno, Nevada about November 20. We left Reno and got stuck on Donner Pass for 2 hours in a snowstorm. We dropped off trophies in Chico and headed to Portland Oregon and then down the Columbia Gorge going East. We hit a snowstorm and got stranded in the Dalles, Oregon. We went to a restaurant and 1 ½ hours later we went back on the freeway and traffic hadn’t moved. I took a shortcut that required crossing a 70’ stretch of frozen river. Al didn’t like it. It was only like 30 degrees out not 10 or 10 below. I crossed the river with 1700lbs of equipment in a Colorado midsize pickup and just past halfway we went through the ice – but there was so much weight in the back that the front wheels and our cab was above the water and the box was below water and we made it. We ended up back on the freeway I-84 about 800 feet past a police blockade and proceeded to go 65 the rest of the way. Al said, “I don’t know whether you’re crazy or brave, but we could have drowned.” We found out later two semis had turned over and traffic was held up for another two hours on I-84 (four in all) after we continued on our way.
Al and Karen put on great meets in Portland, Maine from 2008 to 2018 including two National meets. They put on meets in Orlando, Florida Birmingham, Alabama, Lansing, Michigan and started the Jonesboro, Arkansas meet that they ran for four years. Al and Karen went to every Worlds from 2007 to 2017 and Karen help Elma on the computer and Al did some nighttime security and helped with equipment set up. They were co-meet directors with Brian Fahrenfeld at the New York meet for seven years and ran Lynchburg, Virginia meet. They went to the World Cup in Wisconsin Dells for 7 years and were my right-hand people in ballroom setup – computer work- and judging. Al and I had a lot of laughs on our 8000 miles of driving.
I will see you shortly Al and we’ll take another road trip.
Gus Rethwisch
