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John Dustin at the unveiling of his Order of Merit |
Oregon State Wrestling alumnus and FALL Club member, John Dustin, was honored by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame with the Order of Merit. The official ceremony will be held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on June 1, 2013. Congratulations, John!!
A special thank you to Len Kauffman for sharing these photos of John at the Honors Banquet back in Stillwater.
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John & Bonnie surrounded by their children and grandchildren |
The biography provided for John by Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling for this event is as follows:
Order of Merit
JOHN DUSTIN, Portland, Ore.
For most of his life, John Dustin has served the sport of wrestling.
Wrestling for Oregon
State University, he placed fourth at the NCAA wrestling tournament at
177 pounds in 1957 and 1958, becoming the first two-time All-American in
program history. His 42-5 career record
placed him eighth on Oregon State’s all-time career winning percentage
list.
Dustin was an
assistant coach at Oregon State before coaching at Marshfield High
School from 1962-1970, where his wrestlers won eight individual state
high school titles. In 1970, Dustin and his family left
for a two-year assignment at the American School in Japan.
After returning to
the United States Dustin continued a distinguished career of over five
decades of service to the sport of wrestling, which included roles as a
coach, national and international official,
national and international sports administrator, and manager of the
wrestling competitions at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the Sydney
Olympics in 2000, and three Goodwill Games. He has worked with FILA, the
international governing body for the sport of wrestling,
the Amateur Athletic Union, USA Wrestling, and virtually every major
wrestling organization around the world.
He refereed three
FILA World Championships, including the 1966 World Championships in
Toledo, Ohio, the 1969 Junior World Championships in Boulder, Colo., and
the 1971 Junior World Championships in Tokyo,
Japan. He was also selected as team leader by USA Wrestling for the
1990 World Championships.
Dustin received nine
major awards from FILA and additional awards from the Asian Wrestling
Congress, and from the wrestling governing bodies of Taipei, Mexico, New
Zealand, and Australia. Included in those
awards are two Diplomas of Honor and a very special award in 2002 for
“extraordinary contributions to the wrestling sport development all over
the world” given by FILA president Milan Ercegan.