Published: July 09, 2009 08:57 pm      

Dean Acker: Richmond’s ‘Bowling Ambassador’

With his 155 average, Dean Acker may not be a bowling champion, but he is a man who champions the sport of bowling.

Dean, whose column reporting on the activities of local bowling leagues has appeared in The Richmond Register every Monday since 2007, is passionate about his sport. He got involved with the column when he asked why no one at the paper was covering the local bowling scene, and was told they had no one to do it. He volunteered, and has been writing about it ever since.

When bowling was dropped from the Bluegrass Games for two years, Dean appealed to the chairman of the games and was told it was due to lack of interest.

“He told me if I wanted to bring it back, I’d have to be an ambassador for bowling,” Dean said, “So I guess I’m the unofficial ambassador for bowling.” His efforts have been an apparent success; this year’s games will feature bowling once again.

Although he has that 155 average and has yet to bowl a perfect 300 game, Dean loves the sport, and you can find him on the lanes two days a week on leagues during the summer, and three in the wintertime.

He said he got serious about the sport after he retired from his position at Eastern Kentucky University in 2000, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses in education, after a 37-year career. He also served as test center administrator for the university.

Originally from Wooster, Ohio, Dean earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Wooster College, and his master’s and doctorate degrees in education from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He has been a Richmond resident since 1963.

“I started going bowling with my grandchildren,” he explained, adding that at one point, he bought every bowling book he could get his hands on and hit the lanes seven days a week. He said his grandson, Owen Griffith, was especially enthusiastic about the sport.

What, exactly, does he find so fascinating about bowling?

“Well, it’s something I can do, it’s something that you can personally improve yourself on, and it’s just the ball and you … there’s no one trying to block your shots. Also, there are a lot of numbers involved, and I’ve always been fascinated with numbers,” he said.

“Unlike golf,” he added, “the ball comes back to you … you don’t have to chase after it.”

Dean has other interests besides bowling.

“I love newspapers,” he said. He reads four every day, including The Register, The Lexington Herald-Leader, the Louisville Courier-Journal and USA Today. He has an “in and out baskets” for his newspapers in his Richmond living room, one to be read, the other to be recycled.

He also likes to rock. No, he’s not a rock musician, he just loves rocking chairs, which are all over the house.

“I think it came from when I was little and had an illness and had to be rocked 24 hours a day. The neighbors came in to volunteer to rock me,” he recalled.

Dean also is a past president of the Richmond Little League and Richmond Rotary Club. He got involved in Little League through his children, now grown.

His first wife died in 1990 and he got remarried to his current wife, Margaret, in 1995. He has two children; Ron, who lives in Lexington and is a designer with Trane, and Beverly, a pediatrician who lives in Georgia and is an adoption advocate, with five adopted children and two children of her own. He also has a stepson, Jeff Griffith, a football coach at Bowling Green High School in Bowling Green.

While he was involved with Little League in the 70s, he covered the action for The Register.

When he’s not on the lanes, reading his beloved newspapers, or rocking, Dean and his wife enjoy attending movies and plays, especially musicals.

As long as he is able, Dean will continue to share his love of bowling, and enjoying his title of unofficial bowling ambassador.