Mas Kimball
Mas Kimball: July 14, 1949 - November 16, 2021
Sometimes we’re fortunate enough to have an extraordinary person touch our lives. Mas Kimball was such an individual; he reached the end of his journey last week after a courageous year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He managed to pack an astounding array of accomplishments into his foreshortened time with us. And he did it all with humility and respect for others. The challenge is always to enjoy the relatively brief period we have here and experience aliveness. Mas showed us how to do that.
Mas came to tennis thirty-five years ago. He was in the midst of a career where he developed several computer service companies. He continued to work in the field of IT, design, development, and implementation throughout his life. After he “retired,” he worked as a political activist in local, regional, state, and national arenas. He was almost always balancing responsibilities in several endeavors at once.
As in everything that he undertook, Mas threw himself into the game of tennis wholeheartedly. He not only worked on his game, but began to become an administrator par excellence. He started running tournaments, organized and ran several clubs, and became a teaching pro. He was Pro of the Year in the Eastern section in 2001. He branched out and became the Co-Director of a club in the Caribbean. He became the Tournament Director of some international events.
In the process of all this, he managed to accumulate 17 gold balls with then-wife Sue Kimball. They won the Grand Slam of Husband & Wife 140 in 2017. As the Senior Pro and Program Co-ordinator of the Farm Neck Tennis Club on Martha’s Vineyard, he ran numerous fund-raisers for various causes. He was a great team-builder, and always seemed to be looking for a way to make the planet a better place. We were all the beneficiaries of his passion to give back. He felt that that was the greatest gift he could give.
As was probably inevitable, Mas was tapped to serve on the USTA’s Adult Competition Committee. He has done so up until the time of his passing. His contributions there were voluminous. He also inaugurated the Level 3 NSMTA senior men’s tournament on Martha’s Vineyard that received rave reviews.
My own contact with Mas began with our efforts to inaugurate the National Senior Men’s Tennis Association. Five of us, along with Mas, began trying to figure out what it would take to get such an organization underway. (The women had done so forty years ago!) I don’t know where we’d be without Mas’ input and knowledge – he was an invaluable member of our Board. He was a great listener, able to bring together disparate points of view.
Our hearts go out to Keiko, Amy, and members of his family. We’ll not see Mas’ smiling face again, but it will always live in our memories.