Vince Chiappetta was born and bred in New York City. He is a scientist, teacher, professor, a published author of poetry, prose, and textbooks. He has also been a stalwart fixture in the running community of New York City for over 60 years. What many don’t realize about Vince is that he is a co-founder of what has become a worldwide event; and a veritable New York City institution – The New York City Marathon! For several years he served as the President of the New York Road Runners (NYRR) as well as the RRCA (Road Runners Clubs of America). He was a pioneer in the development of women’s long distance running and helped to lead the changes in Athletics rules to expand the venue of female athletes in Long Distance and Road Running. While doing all this work in the Road Running community, he kept active in the TAC Metropolitan Association scene as well. He was the unofficial caretaker/measurer of the Cross-Country courses at Van Cortlandt Park. Vince knew the exact spot where every start line was, and where every “split” mark was on all the traditional courses run at the park. When the course was improved/restored, his knowledge of these locations was invaluable to that effort. Not one to grab the spotlight for his efforts, Vince’s talents also shone brightly while officiating indoor Track. Probably the toughest officiating job in Indoor Track is being the lap counter in the distance events. Vince excelled at the job with great aplomb, handling events up to 5000 meters (35 laps) on the Madison Square Garden track that was 11 laps to a mile! He never lost anyone in those large fields. That is now almost a lost art.