Wallace Tobin 3rd, 69, Was America's Cup Sailor

Wallace (Toby) Emmett Tobin 3rd died Dec. 31 after a valiant struggle with brain cancer. 

Mr. Tobin was born on July 23, 1937, to Wallace E. Tobin II and Elizabeth Lovell Tobin of Vineyard Haven.

He graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, class of 1955, and was a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps student at Yale University, class of 1959. He attended Cambridge University on a Clare Fellowship, receiving a master's degree, and later received an master's of business administration from the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

Mr. Tobin served in the U.S. Navy from 1961-1967 on several tours as a navigator of large ships. He concluded his naval duty at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., as a professor of English and as director of the sailing program, which later became the Robert Crowne Sailing Center.

After leaving the navy, he worked as director of development at Yale University. From 1974 to 1981 he was manager of Acigraf in Branford, Conn. He ended his 30-year business career as an executive with Bear Island Paper Company.

From 1971 to 2001, he published the Mariner's Pocket Companion, a daily annotated calendar that was well-known and widely distributed in the sailing community.

An avid and passionate sailor since childhood, he was the youngest amateur to participate in the 1958 America's Cup defense aboard Columbia, sailing with such legends as Olin and Rod Stephens and Halsey Herreshoff.

Mr. Tobin's experience catapulted him into sailing in major ocean races: Bermuda and Europe on Windrose and Good News with Jakob Isbrandtsen, the Admiral's Cup series with Mr. Isbrandtsen, followed by another on Figaro III with Bill Snaith. He participated in two more America's Cup races aboard Intrepid in 1967 and Valiant in 1970. According to his colleagues, his skills as a navigator were unparalleled.

Mr. Tobin served with great dedication as an overseer of Sea Education Association, contributing his knowledge to the safety of the sail training vessels; as a board member of American Friends of Cambridge University; and as a member of the Fales Committee at the U.S. Naval Academy, which supports the sailing program there. He was also an avid supporter of the sailing program at Yale Corinthian Yacht Club.

He has been an active sailor with his Hood 37, Elizabeth, and since 2001, a McCurdy & Rhodes 46, Froya. In retirement, he indulged his passion for sailing by delivering friends' boats to the Caribbean and back, as well as summer cruising and racing in the Gulf of Maine aboard his cherished Froya.

Survivors include his wife, Harriet Rinse Tobin; his former wife, Deborah Geldard Tobin of Guilford, Conn.; his children Briggs Tobin and wife Jessica of Ridgefield, Conn., Ashley Tobin and husband Jim Watters of Orinda, Calif. and Bliss Tobin of San Francisco, Calif.; siblings Dorsey Naylor and husband Bob of Jericho, Vt., Hallett Tobin and wife Dorothy of East Point, Fla., Florence Tobin of Corning, N.Y. and Matthew Tobin and wife Bridget of Chilmark; grandchildren Lane and Sam Tobin, and Lindsey and Toby Watters; nephews and nieces; stepsons Daniel and Steven Dawson and their families of Gig Harbor, Wash.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Toby's memory may be made to the Sea Education Association, P.O. Box 6, Woods Hole, MA 02543, or to the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, c/o Sailing Associates, P.O. Box 208216, New Haven, CT 06520.