Bill Kerslake wrestling Hallow WilsonBorn in Euclid, Ohio in suburban Cleveland, William Roy Kerslake did not compete in wrestling until he attended Case Institute of Technology. As an undergraduate, Kerslake earned nine letters in wrestling, football and track and field. He set the Case and Ohio Conference shot put record in track, was an All-Big Four tackle (defensive and offensive) in football and was one of the premier wrestlers in the country, according to his Case Western Reserve Hall of Fame biography. For all those accomplishments, Kerslake was voted Case's outstanding athlete of 1951.
Kerslake graduated in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in industrial chemistry and later went on to also earn a master's degree in chemical engineering from Case in 1955.
"Bill was a wrestling alum, Case Institute 1951, and legend has it that the founding father of Case Western Reserve Wrestling, Claude Sharer, pulled Bill out of phys. ed. class to start his career as a Hall of Fame wrestler," according to Danny Song, head wrestling coach at Case Western. "He was a 15-time U.S. Open Champion, a 3-time Olympian at heavyweight while simultaneously serving in rocket propulsion development as a rocket scientist for NASA (then NACA)."
Yes, Kerslake the wrestler was also Kerslake the rocket scientist.
After college, Kerslake started his career at the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in suburban Cleveland, where he was instrumental in the development of rocket propulsion, including the first ion thruster which propelled U.S. astronauts to the moon, over a career lasting more than three decades.
That career alone would be more than enough for most rocket scientists. Yet Kerslake managed to excel in his chosen profession while being a world-beater on the wrestling mat.
"Unlike most of today's athletes who can train year-round thanks to sponsorships or their youth, Kerslake had to juggle a full-time job and his large role at home with preparing to wrestle the world's best," the 2008 article titled "Case's Three-Time Olympian and Rocket Scientist" reported. "Kerslake had to use all his vacation days and some unpaid leave time to train for and compete in the games. Although he would never admit it, that may have been what held him back from an Olympic medal."
In addition to his on-the-mat success winning a total of 15 national titles -- eight in freestyle, seven in Greco-Roman -- Kerslake served as a high school referee in the Cleveland area for over a decade. Kerslake has been welcomed into a number of athletic and academic halls of fame, including the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla. as a Distinguished Member in 1982, and the Case Western Reserve University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1975.
Kerslake is survived by four children, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His wife of 61 years, Pat, preceded him in death.
Services were held Thursday afternoon, Oct. 8 in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, the community Bill and Pat Kerslake called home for decades.
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