At 85, Bob Sitton is still skating through life
Candy Puterbaugh
50plus Magazine
As a child, Bob Sitton couldn’t sit still and was into everything. Today, at 85, that hasn’t changed. Attending military high school gave him discipline, but he still marched to his own drum. In fact, he became a jazz drummer. . . and a singer, poet, author, actor, doctor of philosophy, film critic, college professor, sailor and cook. Head to toe, his wheels were always turning — literally.
“When I was 10, my older brother, just out of the Navy in World War II, took me to the largest roller-skating rink in the country,” Bob says. “From the start I knew I wanted to compete and got into jumps and spins. Roller skating was enormously popular post-war. I’d skate with and learn from the Navy veterans.”
At 12, Bob won a championship for his age group. A year later a regional win in freestyle qualified him — one of only nine skaters his age — for a national tournament.
“I was too young to travel on my own and my parents were alcoholics so no one could take me,” he says. “I quit competing at 15 because I was busy, and skating was time-consuming. I went into real life!”
He’d attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with his parents from age six. “I was too young to be left at home alone. I learned a lot about discipline, avoiding addiction and accepting things I cannot change.”
At 60, Bob started studying how to be an old person. “Military schooling helped me with growing older and taught me what I can control. I make my bed daily and cook healthy food — a bran muffin every morning.”
Bob’s achievements are so numerous and varied it’s difficult to imagine them being accomplished by only one man. For years, skating took a backseat, and he missed it. “I felt deprived all those years until age 65 when I took up skating again.”
In 2003 he competed in his first national meet, “the only old person competing,” where he earned bronze in freestyle and figures. His oldest competitor was 18. He trains at the oldest rink in the country, Oaks Park.
Bob shares a video showing an elderly man in a shiny red jacket and bowtie stepping onto a golden rink, gracefully dance-skating a waltz, arms outstretched, head held high. This from 2010, when he won the silver medal in figure skating for men over 65 at the U.S. championships — his highest award ever.
“That ‘glide waltz’ was a dance I learned at age 10!” he says. “I was judged on placing a symmetrical pattern on the floor while executing fundamentals and dancing as gracefully as possible. It’s about exactitude. Solo dance-skating is my favorite event.”
Today his tidy home and yard reflect his discipline, joys and achievements. Books are neatly stacked, one bearing his name as author. Displayed in a corner is a bright red skating jacket hung with multiple medals. Around the walls are photos of his wife, son, daughter and three grandchildren.
“I’ve enjoyed my life,” he says. “I have beauty and pleasure, keep things moderate, and have always been a student. The last 10 years I’ve felt better than ever. I’ve loved skating from the start — the sensation of rolling along, so light and airy, like floating. There’s nothing like it.”
Bob Sutton Timeline
1959 — Earned BA (Wake Forest) in Philosophy
1964 — Earned PhD (Duke) in Philosophy
1965 — Became a New York Times film critic
1973 — Became Director of Northwest Film Study Center
1973 — Met and later married Patricia, an
arts historian and writer
2003 — First of 20 annual national competitions in which many he was NW Champion
2010 — US Championship Silver Medalist — men 65+ figure skating
Candy Puterbaugh is a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, groan-inducing punster, writer, competitive runner, pet lover and tender of gardens.