Hope Barnes was a 1981 graduate of Pennsylvania, and rowed with Penn’s undefeated national championship women’s crew of 1980.
As one of only three seniors on the varsity eight, she was a leader of a team which was not only undefeated but also led every race from start to finish. She was later a member of both the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic crews.
Barnes was working toward a Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1991 when she died at the age of 33 in a fall while climbing Dragontail Peak in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. Several months prior she had returned to Pennsylvania for a 10-year reunion of the national championship team. She made the following remarks about the team:
“It was the epitome of a team effort. Nobody was a standout in athletic talent. Everyone worked very hard ... We felt that there was a real opportunity to have something special. It was the coming together of a tremendous diversity of people.”
