Roger Vaughan – Writer Extraordinaire
The late writer Roger Vaughan was a prolific author of books and articles covering a wide range of topics and personalities. I got to know Vaughn through my work with Gary Jobson. Vaughn was always the go-to writer when Gary was looking for compelling copy. Vaughn passed away recently at his home in Easton, Maryland. He was 88.
Vaughan was a gifted writer who excelled at capturing the inner drive successful people have in business, the arts, and sports. He had a disarming ability to connect with his subjects and was honest about their lives, both positive and negative.
Vaughan was the co-writer with Kimball Livingston of the motion picture, “Wind” that debuted in 1992. The film featured actors, Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey, Cliff Robertson and Jack Thompson.
Over his extensive career many of us knew Vaughan through his books starting with Ted Turner’s failed America’s Cup effort in 1974, “The Grand Gesture.” Turner came back and won the next America’s Cup in 1977, and Vaughan wrote a sequel detailing Turner’s victory. Two years later Vaughan was a member of the crew of a maxi yacht, “Kialoa,” in the infamous Fastnet Race that claimed fifteen lives and is considered “the roughest ocean race on record.” He wrote about the harrowing account of the vicious race in “Fastnet: One Man’s Voyage.”
Over the next 40 years Vaughan wrote about many sailing personalities including Larry Ellison’s America’s Cup victory in 2010, yachtswoman Patsy Kennedy Bolling, and James Gordon Bennet, Jr., publisher of the New York Herald, who became the youngest commodore of the New York Yacht Club at the age of 29.
His articles appeared in National Geographic, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Tidewater Times, Cruising World, Sailing World, Yachting and The Yacht (Vaughan was the founding editor).
In 1990 at the age of 52 he joined the crew of a Russian entry, “Fazisi”, in the Whitbread Round the World Race on a 6,255-mile leg from Auckland, New Zealand to Punte del Este, Uruguay. His gripping account told readers about the perils of sailing in the Southern Ocean and rounding Cape Horn, the windiest place on Earth. Following the Whitbread Race, Vaughan wrote scripts for ESPN television shows on sailing, the Extreme Games, and many documentaries.
He will be missed by all who knew him or read his work.
—Written by Gary Jobson, edited by Vince Casalaina
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