Pool staff pay tribute to faithful swimmer

Posted 11/14/19

The Powell Aquatic Center has been missing one of its most faithful swimmers over the past few weeks.

From June 2014 through this fall, David Warwick was a regular presence at the pool, showing …

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Pool staff pay tribute to faithful swimmer

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The Powell Aquatic Center has been missing one of its most faithful swimmers over the past few weeks.

From June 2014 through this fall, David Warwick was a regular presence at the pool, showing up each weekday morning — always around 7 a.m. So when he died on Oct. 30 at the age of 83, Warwick’s absence was felt keenly by his many friends at the Powell pool.

“David interacted well with everyone here, making people laugh every single day,” said Powell Aquatic Center Co-Director Tanya Bonner. “Everyone loved him.”

Warwick’s daily routine started with swimming laps — “his freestyle and backstroke was pretty decent,” Bonner said of the self-taught swimmer — before relaxing in the leisure pool. When Warwick was injured in a fall a couple years ago, he used the pool to aid with his rehabilitation.

“He understood the impact that aquatics can have in people’s lives,” said Chris Wolff, an adaptive physical education teacher at Southside Elementary School who regularly takes students to the pool.

Staff at the Powell Aquatic Center paid tribute to Warwick on Tuesday, reserving a lane in his honor with a bouquet of flowers and a kickboard decorated with a couple photographs of Warwick in the pool; one picture shows him celebrating a birthday with one of Wolff’s students.

“We really just need to consider ourselves blessed for knowing the guy,” Wolff said of Warwick.

Added Bonner, “We will certainly miss him.”

— CJ Baker

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