Longtime coach, former skater Laws dies at age 85
Past students, contemporaries remember revered coach as true gentleman
Don Laws provided Scott Hamilton with more than just coaching techniques. He did more than tweak his triple Axel and shore up his school figures.
"He taught me responsibility," Hamilton said. "It was an extraordinary gift."
Laws, a U.S. junior men's and ice dance champion who went on to coach many of the sport's great skaters for more than six decades, most notably Hamilton, died Tuesday morning of heart failure at the age of 85. He was being treated under the care of Montgomery Hospice in Sandy Spring, Maryland.
The two began working together formally in the spring of 1979 but had known each other for years leading up to that. But when Hamilton signed on with Laws and moved to Philadelphia, Laws established firm rules. Under Laws, Hamilton said he learned not just how to compete, but how to train.
"At first, he had a leash for me that was about three chain-lengths long," said Hamilton, who started working with Laws after a difficult split with Carlo Fassi. "Then, slowly over time, he gave me more leash. By the time we were in Sarajevo [for the 1984 Olympics] the leash wasn't there anymore. He was about showing up every day. He would tell me, 'You do what you want, but don't let it show up at the rink.' He awakened something in me."
With Laws as his guide, Hamilton went from being a self-described "serial underachiever" to a U.S. champion, world champion and an Olympic champion.
On Monday, Hamilton flew from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, to be with his longtime mentor one last time.
The coach-skater relationship lasted long after Hamilton ended his competitive and professional skating career and endured many ups and downs, with Hamilton battling cancer and Laws coping with poor health of his own in recent years.
Although they didn't see each other more than a couple of times a year, they remained close. Hamilton even surprised Laws in Florida a few years ago by tricking his former coach into believing that he was attending a dinner to honor Hamilton when, in fact, the event was to honor Laws.
One of the most famous stories involving Laws and Hamilton came on the morning after Hamilton's 21st birthday. The night before, the two had been out late celebrating. The next morning, Laws expected Hamilton to be on the ice for practice.
"Let's put it this way -- we had a big night, and the next day I wasn't feeling 100 percent," Hamilton said. "I was feeling about 10 percent. But Don was on the ice the next morning and said, 'OK, warm up and do a long program run through.' I did the long program and did it pretty well but I was not going to give him the satisfaction of how miserable I felt. He told me that was enough and then I went home.
"I learned an important lesson that day," Hamilton added. "Whether you're landing in Japan and you don't feel well, or you're sick, I knew that I could still do it. He gave me that confidence."
Over the course of the past weeks as Laws' health was failing, he was visited by many of his former students. His family said they learned so much about him through those encounters. Even though his family members were well aware that Laws was a distinguished coach who had flown around the globe for high-level competitions, they didn't know many of his skating friends or the stories about him from that part of his life until recently.
A private man who was described by many as a true gentleman, a professional and even regal, it is not surprising that Laws kept his grand achievements at low volume, even with relatives.
"My maximum goal has always been to see my students surpass me," Laws said in his book, The Life of an Olympic Figure Skating Coach, which was written by Beverly Ann Menke. "If they achieve that, then I have had their best interest in mind and not my own."
Michael Weiss, whom Laws coached from 2002-06, had visited his former mentor recently. Weiss, who lives on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., had kept close ties with Laws over the years and even awarded Laws a lifetime achievement award from his skating foundation several years ago.
"There are very few people you meet in your life that your life is better because you had known them, and Don was one of those people," said Weiss, who won one of his three U.S. titles with Laws as his coach. "He helped so many people during his life, and really helped people reach their potential, not just the ones you see -- the national and Olympic and world champions -- but the skaters he helped get to South Atlantics and Easterns who never thought they would make it."
One of Laws' proudest moments in skating came during his time in Philadelphia when he coached a skater named Reginald Stanley, who was the first black skater to be granted admittance into the Philadelphia Figure Skating Club and Humane Society. Stanley was a regular visitor in Laws' final days.
"He represented not only great skating but the breaking of a barrier that, from my arrival in Philadelphia, I had set my mind on overcoming," Laws said in his memoir. "He represented a very big Yes!"
Known for his stark gray hair, his impeccable sense of style (he almost always was donning a coat and tie) and his dry sense of humor, Laws built long-lasting friendships with his students. Some went on to become champions, others, such as Nathan Birch and Lori Nichol, went on to become top choreographers helping groom champions.
"He coached me from the time I took my second test through gold," Nichol said. "I went to work with Carlo [Fassi] and then went back to Don. Don was like my second father."
In a political sport such as skating, Laws somehow managed to maintain strong relationships with coaches he was going up against, and even some coaches who took on some of his former skaters. Tiffany Chin, for example, left Laws to work with John Nicks, but Nicks said his relationship with Laws never wavered.
"We had a lot of respect for each other," Nicks said. "He was a really cool guy and always seemed to be in control.
"And I really don't remember anyone who had a bad word about him, which is rare in our business."
Even though Laws had worked with the likes of Hamilton, Weiss said Laws never went out of his way to tell stories about being the coach of an Olympic champion. Laws never had to brag about his achievements, but if asked, he politely would answer questions.
"No, he would never say, 'Well, when I was coaching Scott in the Olympics,' or be conceited or boastful," Weiss said. "I think Don felt very secure about himself and who he was."
In addition to Hamilton and Weiss, Laws coached Canadian champion Patrick Chan until the two split shortly before the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. While training with Laws, Chan won two Canadian titles in '08 and '09 and earned the silver medal at the 2009 world championships. Chan had said that he felt connected to Laws because both had worked with coach Osborne Colson. In fact, Chan and Laws met when both were pallbearers at Colson's funeral.
Born on May 30, 1929, in Washington, D.C., Laws began his skating career at the Washington Figure Skating Club. He trained as a singles skater, but he also achieved success in ice dance. In 1948, he and partner Mary Firth won the U.S. junior title. Two years later, he was crowned the 1950 U.S. junior men's champion. He was named to the world team in 1951 and finished seventh.
Following the world championships, he joined the U.S. Army Security Agency, which specialized in military intelligence during the Korean War.
But skating always was his passion, and he embarked on a coaching career following his military service, teaching skaters in Philadelphia, Denver and Atlanta. Most recently, he had coached in Florida and Maryland. He also was very involved in skating's back stages, especially when the International Skating Union began overhauling the judging system following the 2002 pairs skating scandal that rocked the Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Outside of skating, Laws enjoyed reading and boating. Still, nothing compared to his love of skating. He had been hospitalized while the Olympics were going on in Sochi back in February, and his family said whenever skating was on television, he instantly beamed. In his final weeks, he would tell visitors about skating programs and would ask about recent results.
The results he had with his own skaters speak for themselves.
As Hamilton wrote in the foreword of Laws' biography, "Nothing I did after 1979 would have been possible with any other coach. He had the temperament, intellect, technical knowledge, taste and perspective to take a driven, frustrated, serial underachiever to the absolute pinnacle of the sport."
Laws is survived by a brother, Willard Laws, and a sister, Laura Keesling, and was the uncle to many nieces and nephews.
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