NATIONAL CROQUET MUSEUM

Harvey Geiger is highly regarded by all who know him well. His enthusiasm, personal commitment, high energy and generosity toward any activity with which he becomes associated is infectious. We are very fortunate that croquet is one of his most passionate interests. His spirited inventiveness sparks the minds of people who know nothing about the game as well as those who were already deeply involved in promoting and developing the sport.

In 1998, Harvey and his wife Pam were introduced to croquet at the Meadowood Resort in California by Jerry Stark. They took a series of lessons and fell in love…with the game. Returning home to Hilton Head, Geiger helped organize a group of players, which became the Wexford Croquet Club. In 2002, he became its president and joined the USCA and the National Croquet Center as a National Patron.

Subsequently, Geiger, representing Wexford, was a founding member of the Coastal Croquet Clubs. He is still president of Wexford and maintains memberships in the Croquet Club of Vermont and Woodlawn Croquet Club in Ellsworth, Maine. The Geigers are strong and steady supporters of the game. He has played in more than 50 USCA tournaments, has a 2.0 handicap and is a USCA referee.

Geiger expresses his generosity and enthusiasm for the sport in many ways. He saw the need to strengthen the National Croquet Center so it would be financially secure as the permanent “home” of croquet in the USA. In 2015, he established a challenge grant to pay off the CFA’s $300,000 first mortgage on the NCC, held by the Diane Blow Estate, and pledged $50,000 toward the goal. The challenge was a success! The mortgage was burned at a 2016 ceremony and excess funds were raised allowing a reduction of more than $100,000 on the second mortgage. Geiger was recognized in the CFA’s Donor Wall of Honor as a member of the Charles P. Steuber Society.

In 2018, Harvey challenged us again by agreeing to leave $200,000 in his estate plan, if we could raise another $800,000 in demonstrated bequest pledges or actual cash donations for the CFA/NCC. These funds, when realized, will go to the CFA’s Heritage Fund, dedicated mainly to making capital improvements, supporting special projects at the National Croquet Center and building much needed emergency reserves. The deadline for meeting the challenge is by the 2019 Hall of Fame Gala. The CFA is working hard to achieve that goal.

Geiger sees the need to engage our youth for the future of the sport. His extraordinary enthusiasm and philanthropy was apparent when, in 2015, he established the Outer Island Croquet League, consisting of eight schools located on islands off the coast of Maine. The schools are small with low populations and few resources. To get their programs started, Harvey and Pam purchased all the necessary equipment and Brighton mallets from The Croquet Store for each school. He then rounded up croquet players from nearby clubs to introduce basic instruction and simplified golf croquet rules. Bob Kroeger and members of the Woodlawn Croquet Club, including Perry Mattson and Tina Hinckley, were the teachers.

The program is still active with the volunteer players providing frequent clinics. Geiger also coordinated the design of croquet logos donated by Chuck Stanko of DB Graphics for each school and provided caps for their participants. For the idle winter months, Geiger invented an indoor croquet game played on indoor/outdoor 24-foot by 36-foot carpet using plastic street hockey pucks with Velcro base hoops – all of which he provided.

In 2015, he introduced Marlboro College in southern Vermont to the sport and provided them with similar equipment as the Maine school project. Bob Kroeger and members of the Vermont Croquet Club provided initial instruction.

More recently, Geiger has worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County to establish croquet teams at the Stephanis and Moran Clubs, donating equipment and caps, while the CFA organized teaching staff and tournament outings to the NCC. Plans are to expand to other chapters as these become established.

To help promote the sport, Geiger authored an article on the Islands’ Croquet League published in The Working Waterfront, and the Wexford Club Times carried a full profile about his involvement in croquet.
Geiger’s other life is just as interesting and passionate. At Yale, he graduated in 1964 and went on to get his master’s degree there in both Architecture and City Planning in 1969. Geiger was a professor in the Graduate Program of City and Regional Planning at Ohio State, and had a successful career in architecture.

Retiring in his early 40s, Harvey and Pam were active sailors with major passages on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and on their barge on the canals of Europe. Geiger is a member of the Cruising Club of America and the Ocean Cruising Club. He is also a car enthusiast and collector. He was one of the founders of the Hilton Head Concours and a national concours judge. He was a contributing editor to Auto Events and Car Collector Magazine and has published more than 200 articles. In 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Lee Iacocca Award for his contributions “to Excellence in Perpetuating an American Automotive Tradition.”

Married to his wife Pam for 46 years, they enjoy giving opportunities to others via internships, Geiger Fellowships and scholarships for individual travel and enrichment activities. These awards go to high school and college students annually at Yale, the Island Institute, the Historical Society of Vermont as well as other community-based charities.

Harvey Geiger is someone who supports his passion for croquet by generously committing his time, money and experience. He has opened doors to those who never expected it and has enlightened his corner of the world about the remarkable joy and benefits of the game of croquet.