Champion Goldy, minister and runner

The Rev. Champion B. Goldy Sr. came to running a bit late in life - when he got into his 70s, in the 1980s.

He was a sprinter, not a jogger, practicing sometimes daily, sometimes only weekly, depending on his South Jersey ministerial workloads.

At age 99, he competed in the 2016 Penn Relays in the spring, running against a 100-year-old woman, according to an account on www.flotrack.org.

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, Mr. Goldy, a Methodist minister in South Jersey, died at his home in Haddonfield.

In 2002, his wife, Evelyn, said, they went to Melbourne, Australia where he competed in the World Masters Athletics Championships.

Mr. Goldy had also taken up competing in javelin, discus, and the shot put, she said, "because he got bored waiting" to run.

So, in competitions such as the one in Australia, "he filled up his day with other events."

In Melbourne, the Inquirer reported, he won, for his age class, the 100 meters, discus, and javelin events, silver in the shot put. In that year of 2002, he turned 85.

"He felt very strongly," his wife said, "about a strong mind in a strong body."

Born in Thorofare, he earned a bachelor's at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., and a master's of divinity at Drew University in 1947.

Mr. Goldy did not exercise regularly or compete in college or afterward, his wife said.

His work was heavy enough.

Besides church duties in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties, he spent six years as superintendent of the Central District of the United Methodist Church in New Jersey.

But when he retired from active ministry at age 70, he said in a 2002 Inquirer interview, he began exercising on a treadmill, a stationary bike, and a rowing machine.

Though retired, he kept a hand in worship, as a minister of visitation for the United Methodist Church in Haddonfield.

But his athletics kept him on the move a bit farther, to competitions in, among other places, Baton Rouge, La., and San Diego.

He had begun his ministries in 1944, in Adelphia in Monmouth County, his wife said.

Over the years, she said, he served in Methodist churches in Asbury Park, East Brunswick, Embury, Oakhurst, Palmyra, and Pitman.

Besides his wife, Mr. Goldy is survived by son Champion B. Jr., daughter A. Susan, a sister, and a grandchild. His first wife, Audrey, died in 1997.

A visitation was set from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, in the Felten Parlor at United Methodist Church, 29 Warwick Rd., Haddonfield, before an 11 a.m. memorial service in the church sanctuary.

Donations may be sent to the United Methodist Communities Foundation, 3311 Route 33, Neptune, N.J. 07753.

Condolences may be offered to the family at kainmurphy.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

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