Barbara Dunbar Named 2023 Capt. Ransom J. Arthur MD Recipient

The idea of adults swimming for fitness was a revolutionary concept in the late 1960s when Ransom J. Arthur decided to start a Masters club in San Diego. His group swam at U.S. Masters Swimming’s first meet in 1970, and the organization has since grown dramatically.

Barbara Dunbar has been part of USMS’s history as a longtime volunteer. She began serving locally in 1977 and nationally in 1988, lengthy records of contributions that helped her receive the 2023 Capt. Ransom J. Arthur M.D. Award, USMS’s most prestigious volunteer award. It’s given annually to a volunteer who has done the most to further the objectives of the organization.

“I am honored to join a long list of 58 other dedicated volunteers who are recognized, since 1973, for making major contributions to AAU Masters and/or U.S. Masters Swimming and for enhancing and encouraging access to fitness and competitive swimmers for adult swimmers,” Dunbar says. “It is gratifying to have my longtime volunteer efforts acknowledged by people who have actively volunteered at all levels and who appreciate the work and commitment involved. I … am extremely fortunate to have worked with a number of dedicated Masters Swimming volunteers over the years and to have known and been influenced by Capt. Ransom Arthur, USN.”

Dunbar’s contributions started in San Diego, where she spent part of her childhood and has lived since 1975. She started swimming and began volunteering two years later. Dunbar, a member of San Diego Swim Masters, hasn’t stopped, meaning her volunteerism has stretched 46 years.

“As one of only a handful of currently active USMS volunteers and competitors who has encyclopedic and institutional knowledge of USMS and who has dedicated nearly half a century of volunteerism to the organization since its infancy, the time has come to recognize Barbara Dunbar and her contributions with the Capt. Ransom J. Arthur M.D. Award,” Marilyn Fink, a member of San Diego Swim Masters, and Meegan Wilson, a member of Florida Aquatic Combined Team, wrote in their nomination letter for Dunbar.

In the 1980s, Dunbar established the San Diego-Imperial LMSC officials certification program to address the lack of qualified officials in the area. USMS subsequently recognized her LMSC’s program as an official certifying body, and its curriculum was used by USMS and other LMSCs.

Dunbar, a certified referee, has also served as the meet director for more than 120 swim meets, providing swimmers who hope to compete the opportunity to do so.

She began serving nationally in 1988, when she was an ad hoc Rule Book Committee member. She joined the History and Archives Committee in 2000, a committee she’s been on since. Under her leadership, the committee worked to ensure the historical record of pool and long distance All-Americans was accurate.

“I was motivated to serve because I wanted to ensure that the accomplishments, swimming times, and volunteer actions of all of the people who had helped form AAU Masters and the U.S. Masters Swimming community were accurately saved and acknowledged forever,” Dunbar says. “This was a difficult task since the documentation for the early years was not readily recorded, saved, located, or perceived as important. Documenting swimmers and their accomplishments and volunteer activities, swimming nationals pool and open water results and records, clubs, and the history and governance of AAU Masters and U.S. Masters Swimming was and is very important.”

Dunbar, 74, was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000. At the time, she had set 91 FINA Masters world records (now World Aquatics world Masters records) and won 24 USMS pool national championships, 18 USMS long distance pool national championships, and three USMS open water national championships.

She has swum 1,172 individual USMS Top 10 times and is a 76-time USMS All-American. She was also inducted into the Masters International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003.

Dunbar also serves as the chair, membership coordinator, sanctions chair, and Top 10 chair for the San Diego-Imperial LMSC. Her local contributions were recognized with the USMS Dorothy Donnelly Service Award in 1997.

“I was raised with the expectation that volunteering was a normal part of growing up and life,” Dunbar says. “I wanted to ensure that there would be opportunities for individuals to swim for fitness and to compete; this required a commitment to volunteering to help make this happen. Without volunteers, there would not have been Masters swimming programs.”