John J. Kelley

John J. Kelley ( John Joseph "Johnny" Kelley, born December 24, 1930 in Norwich, Connecticut; † August 21, 2011 in North Stonington, Connecticut) was an American marathon runner.

Career

From 1956 to 1963 he was eight. Consecutive winner of the Yonkers Marathon U.S. champion

At the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, he came on the 21th Place. The following year he won the Boston Marathon, where he had previously finished second a year ( 2:14:33 h on a 1.1 km short course ), with his personal best of 2:20:05 h after in 1958 and 1959 he was once again become second in Boston, he triumphed at the Pan American Games in 1959 in Chicago.

In Rome in 1960, he finished 19th place at his second Olympic participation. In 1961 he was runner-up in Boston and Canadian champion. He made it in Boston in the top ten three more times: in 1962 he finished fourth in 1963 and second in 1964 seventh.

Overall, he started 32 times in Boston, reaching 31 times the target, most recently in 1992 as a 61 -year-old.

John J. Kelley worked as a teacher at a high school in Groton. He has also worked as a trainer and discovered Amby Burfoot, the Boston winner of 1968. Was later worked as a taxi driver and a freelance writer, was co- author of a biography of Jock Semple, the former race director of the Boston Marathon, and opened in 1980 with its wife Jacintha a shop in his hometown of Mystic. He was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2002. Kelley died of a melanoma that had metastasized in his lungs. He left three daughters and eight grandchildren (his wife had died in 2003 ). His grave is located on the Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic.

He is often referred to as The Younger, to distinguish him from Johnny Kelley (The Elder ), who won in 1935 and 1945 in Boston.

Publications

• With Jock Semple & Tom Murphy: Just Call Me Jock: The Story of Jock Semple, Boston's Mr. Marathon. Waterford Publishing, 1981, ISBN 0942052013