Pete Bostwick Jr. excelled in many sports, including golf and tennis News

Only three men have competed in the US Open in both tennis and golf.

George H. Pete Bostwick Jr., a member of that trio, which also includes Ellsworth Vines and Frank Conner, died July 7 in Delray Beach, Florida.

A member of a prominent Aiken family, Bostwick was 87.

In 1952, he played in the US National Championship of tennis, the predecessor of the US Open.

Seven years later, Bostwick qualified for golf’s US Open. He missed the cut by three shots, but beat the young Jack Nicklaus by a stroke, according to The Albatross golf newsletter written by Bill Fields.

Bostwick grew up in Old Westbury, New York, and Aiken. They attended Aiken Preparatory School through the eighth grade.

His father, George H. Pete Bostwick, is a member of the national thoroughbred racing and polo halls of fame.

The Younger Bostwicks mother, Laura Elizabeth Curtis Bostwick, was a low Handicap golfer who competed in one US Womens Amateur Championship.

And his great-aunts, Harriot and Margaret Curtis, were US Womens Amateur winners who founded the Curtis Cup matches that pit leading female amateurs from the US against those from Great Britain and Ireland.

Pete Bostwick Jr. captured national singles titles in court tennis, squash and rackets (also known as hard rackets).

He was the singles world champion in court tennis in 1969 and 1970.

While attending Middlebury College in Vermont in the 1950s, Bostwick served as the Assistant Captain of the school’s ice hockey team. He was invited to try out for the US Olympic ice hockey team in 1960, two years following his graduation from Middlebury.

According to an Obituary on oysterbayfuneralhome.com, Bostwick will be remembered as a true gentleman with impeccable sportsmanship who was engaging, modest, had great respect for his fellow competitors and was a role model for all generations. He competed with Relentless precision, perseverance and a positive spirit, and was gracious in Victory as well as defeat.

“Pete had an uncanny ability to recall matches, scores and even individual shots and points from 50 years earlier, and had an Endless supply of sports stories, told not to amplify his achievements, but to relive the Moments and camaraderie that brought him so much joy,” the Obituary continued.

Bostwick also was a stockbroker, and he became a general partner in the firm where he worked in 1966.

Bostwicks Survivors include four children and 11 grandchildren, his half-brother, James FC Bostwick, and his half-siblings, Sissy Bostwick Armstrong, Ricky Bostwick and Charlie Bostwick, president of the Aiken Polo Club.

A Celebration of life will be held Sept. 7 in Locust Valley, New York.

Bostwick’s wife, Lilias Lili Knott Bostwick, died in Delray Beach on July 1.

The couple had been married since 1955.