Umpire Donegan Earns Induction into Row Ontario Hall of Fame

Long-time umpire Bill Donegan was recognized for his outstanding contributions on Monday as he was named the first inductee of the 2024 Row Ontario Hall of Fame class.

Donegan has been a life-long enthusiast in the sport of rowing and got his start in the sport as an athlete in St. Catharines in the 1970’s. He competed as an athlete at all levels of the sport, including representing Canada at the World Rowing Championships. He began umpiring in 1990 and hasn’t looked back since.

“I sincerely thank Row Ontario for this great honour,” said Donegan. “I am gratified and humbled and wish to dedicate this award to all of the other umpires who contribute across Ontario to enable and promote competition at all levels of our sport.”

Donegan started by umpiring in local events around Ontario such as CORA regattas, the Ontario Rowing Championships and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. In a few short years he began to umpire at national events across Canada such as the National Rowing Championships and Canada Cup events, before obtaining his World Rowing License to umpire internationally in 1994. However, he didn’t start to umpire at the international level regularly until about ten years later due to other commitments within the rowing community. He was heavily involved in the organization of the 1999 World Rowing Championships in his hometown of St. Catharines and served as the Vice President of High Performance with Rowing Canada Aviron from 2000-2004.

Once he had fulfilled his term with RCA, Donegan began to put his name forward for consideration for various international regattas, and he began to umpire at several high-profile events including World Cup Events, the Pan American Games, and World Rowing Championships. These experiences took him to some spectacular venues around the world, such as Amsterdam, Munich, Brandenburg, Sydney and Lucerne. In 2021 he reached the pinnacle of any umpire’s career when he was chosen by World Rowing as one of the umpires for the Tokyo Olympics.

Off the regatta course, Donegan has also made tremendous contributions to the umpire education and the rules of racing. In 2017, at the request of the RCA Board, he Chaired the Rules of Racing Review Working Group and led the group to the most comprehensive review in over a decade. As a result, the Rules of Racing became much clearer and easier to understand both new and experienced umpires. He has served as a mentor to countless umpires over the years, often going out of his way to help umpires prepare for RCA and World Rowing licensing examinations.

Donegan continues to help organize and umpire at regattas at the local, provincial and national levels and is frequently a Chief Umpire at many regattas throughout the rowing season. All umpires know when Donegan is in charge it is going to be a well-run event.

Row Ontario will be announcing the inductions of the 2024 Hall of Fame class throughout the week as part of ‘Hall of Fame Week’. Stay tuned the rest of this week for more announcements on the 2024 induction class of the Row Ontario Hall of Fame.

Visit Row Ontario Hall of Fame for more information.