Bill McChesney Sr. died Monday at age 91. [Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard] ▲

Bill McChesney Sr., the patriarch of Eugene's first family of running, died at his west Eugene assisted living home Monday morning, three weeks shy of his 92nd birthday.

Doctors discovered a mass on McChesney's lung last month while he was seeking treatment for a heart procedure.

The decline was rapid, said his son Ken, who was with his father when McChesney died in his sleep, as was his brother Steve and their mom, Marcia. The McChesneys had recently celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary.

"He was a very, very lovable man," Ken McChesney said.

Bill McChesney Sr., a successful and respected dentist by trade, is remembered more for his impact on the local running scene.

He was a meet official at Hayward Field for nearly four decades, an accomplished masters runner who competed in Eugene's Butte to Butte road race until his late 80s, and the father of four sons who graduated from South Eugene High School, three of whom competed for the Oregon track and field team, including Bill Jr., who is the school record holder in the 5,000 meters.

Bill Jr. died in a car accident in 1992. McChesney's son Tom died in 1986 in a bicycle accident.

Vin Lananna, the former Oregon coach and president of local organizing committee Track Town USA, called the McChesneys "the historians of track and field in Eugene and the University of Oregon. They're part of the fabric that makes Oregon track and field so special. He embodied the spirit. He kept the flame alive through the positives, the negatives, the changing times."

Ken McChesney said his father had an instrumental role in bringing the 1972 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials to Hayward Field and was also a founder of the dentistry school at Lane Community College.

"Most people know him because of running, but the guy was involved in everything," Ken McChesney said.

McChesney was also a former president of the Oregon Track Club.

Oregon track and field coach Robert Johnson said he was "deeply saddened" by McChesney's death.

"Beyond the impact he and his family have had on our program at the University of Oregon, Bill leaves a long-lasting legacy of dedication to the sport of track and field," Johnson said. "He and his wife Marcia mean so much to this community and helped build the running culture here in Eugene. It's hard to put into words how much Bill will be missed."

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