"A Pool for every school"

Now it's 1942. Judy is swimming for the University of Pennsylvania, and is practically unbeatable. She is featured on the sports page every week. She holds the record for different swimming events and especially excels at breaststroke and freestyle. Her record times are posted on the inside wall of the pool building. In her 1985 interview, she notes, "There were no age groups back then. At 13, I swam against 20- and 21-year-olds. There were two classes. You swam in novice if you never won a medal, and the rest was open field."

She held many unbroken records, one of which was the 150-yrad Individual Medley at the collegiate level. In those days, the event included only backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. Butterfly was adder later in the 1950s, making it a 200-yard event, so Judy kept her record for the 150! She also frequently swam and held championship records in 50- and 100-yard freestyle, the 220, 440, 880-yard and mile swims.

In 1942, the AAU National Swim Championships were held in Philadelphia. Stoney McLinn and Marty of Radio WIP interviewed Judy the evening before the big event. She talked about the competitors, both men and women, and some sailors competing; to raise funds for The War Prisoners Fund and her own event, the individual medley. BUT, what sticks in the mind of her son most clearly, who treasures the written transcript of that interview, is what she said about her dream. The interviewer, Marty, had highlighted the fact that "we have swimming clubs in nearly all our high schools, and so many girls wanted to join that we had to turn quite a few away."

Judy responded, "I'm glad so many are interested, because everybody should know how to swim -- whether they use it in competition or not... I think that before too long, each school will have its own swimming pool -- and girls and boys will learn to swim just as they learn to read and write."

The interviewer hoped that war memorial pools would be built in every high school, dedicated to our brave soldiers, for "the health and safety of young America". Judy had a dream that if all school children could learn to swim, they would be able to keep themselves safe, and maybe save others from drowning later in life.

TV was a new medium in those days. Judy was invited to demonstrate her swimming to be broadcast on the air. The cameras in the studio were stationary, but they could swivel. Someone "cooked up" (her son's words) the idea of using a piano bench covered with a blue cloth to have her demo her swimming style.

For those of you who may have seen old Tarzan movies, you may have seen Judy Auritt. She swam with Jonny Weissmuller in Tarzan. Judy said she met Esther Williams of synchronized-swimming fame during a national championship meet in Des Moines, IA. Esther coordinated physically demanding synchronized swimming configurations with groups of ladies forming stars and a kaleidoscope of moving patterns in the water, filmed overhead. Organizing water ballet shows that performed with the USO for those in the armed services during the WWII, Judy herself embarked on what would become a lifelong career of service to public and cultural organizations.