My grandfather, Ted Mumby, went to India as a Methodist Missionary in the early 1920′s. Ted spent most of his mission career as a coach and teacher at Lucknow Christian College. Among his accomplishments were establishing the first college of physical education in India and coaching the Indian Olympic team at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. My father, Hugh, and his siblings grew up as missionary kids and went to boarding school at Woodstock School in Mussoorie, a former hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India (see High School in India). My father (class of 1943), older brother Winston (class of 1942), and younger sister Carol spent grade school and most of high school at Woodstock. From what I’ve heard, the Mumby brothers were well known for both their athletic prowess and the mischief they regularly got into.
The Ted Mumby family left India in 1941, before Win or Hugh graduated from high school, and moved to Palo Alto, California where Ted took a position as wrestling coach at Stanford University. Both Hugh and Win served in the Air Force during WWII and wound up back in the San Francisco Bay Area afterward. Hugh went to college at UC Berkeley while Win attended college across the bay at Stanford. Hugh and Win were both outstanding athletes in college. The fact that Cal and Stanford were (and are) arch rivals, made the rivalry between the brothers a newsworthy item in the Bay Area. My father went on to get his Master’s at Berkeley, married my mother Jeanne, took a faculty position at San Jose State University, and raised three kids. All of my nuclear family, except me, still live in the SF Bay Area.
After college Win returned to Woodstock in the early 50′s where he served as a science teacher and athletic director. At Woodstock, Win met and married the school nurse, Carol Downs. Win and Carol went on to raise three kids and live a rather amazing life as Win sampled careers that included big game hunting, teaching high school in California, tutoring the children of the King of Hunza, coaching and teaching at Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan, and ultimately as an executive with Coca Cola International, where he spent 30 years in various parts of Asia. After retirement, Win got re-involved with Woodstock as a member of the school’s Board of Directors. During Win’s tenure, the Board helped establish a new vision for Woodstock as it transitioned from a missionary school to an international boarding and preparatory school. One of Win’s dreams was to construct a new gymnasium facility at Woodstock. After his death in 1998, Carol made a substantial donation in Win’s honor to establish a fund for constructing a new gym at Woodstock. Ten years later, the gym is a reality that will be officially dedicated on Sept. 18, 2009.
