Gretchen Crosby, 1941-2020

MGA

 
EDINA, Minn. (Nov. 10, 2020) -- Gretchen Crosby, 79, of Minneapolis, passed away suddenly Oct. 28. Crosby, née Kerkhof, grew up in Golden Valley, attended the Northup Collegiate prep school for girls, which would later merge with The Blake School, and Wheaton College in Illinois, where she majored in French. Crosby returned to Northrup to teach French. In 1965, she married Robert Crosby and took up golf, an activity they both could enjoy together, while raising three children.

Crosby became expert in the Rules of Golf and began to actively volunteer in golf administration, serving on the board of the Minnesota Women’s Golf Association in 1986. Less than a decade later, she was elected president of the MWGA (1995). By virtue of the latter, she was appointed to the MGA Board of Directors in 1994 and served for more than 11 years. Crosby was appointed to the USGA’s Women’s Mid-Amateur Committee, from 1997 to 2005. She would chair the MGA’s Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship Committee, and co-chair the 2007 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at the Desert Forest Golf Club in Carefree, Ariz.

In 1997 Crosby was appointed vice-chair of the MGA’s Centennial Celebrations Committee, a commitment spanning four years in which the committee would orchestrate several projects celebrating a century of amateur golf in Minnesota, including a history book, a limited-edition art print by Loyal “Bud” Chapman, a documentary video, a new logo and golf apparel, and a gala dinner held Aug. 20, 2001, at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, one of the association’s original seven founding golf clubs, and Crosby’s home club. The gala evening featured keynote speaker Thomas Friedman, author and Pulitzer Prize columnist for the New York Times, and special guest speaker, Tom Lehman, the 1996 British Open champion from Alexandria, Minn.

Crosby is survived by her husband and three children, David Crosby, Jennifer Crosby-Zarth and Susan Crosby, and seven grandchildren. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.

To read the Star Tribune obituary published Nov. 8, 2020, click here.