SALEM — This year's Wild Turkey 5 Mile Run ended in a photo finish.
The victor, Max Kaulbach of Philadelphia, eked out the win over runner-up Paul Rupprecht of Lexington. Laura Kennedy of Brighton finished first in the women's division.
The winners led the largest pack of runners that the Thanksgiving Day contest has seen yet, according to Doug Bollen, Salem's director of park, recreation and community services.
Winners received an airline ticket from AirTran Airways to anywhere in the United States the company flies.
Kaulbach, who runs for Cornell University, could not accept the airline ticket, so Rupprecht was awarded the free flight.
Some 1,540 runners registered, but 1,358 actually participated and finished the course that goes past Salem sites. With so many participants, the race is the largest on the North Shore and Cape Ann on Turkey Day, Bollen said.
"People love the course," the recreation director said. "People like coming to Salem and running by the water and Winter Island."
The race was first run seven years ago with just over 300 runners and has grown nearly fivefold. Bollen hopes to have a timing computer-chip system in place for next year's turkey trot.
In the meantime, we say congratulations to everyone who got off their duffs and took to the road before sitting down to their Thanksgiving feasts.
Passing of a president
Jim Amsler, president of Salem State College from 1979-88, will be buried tomorrow at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne. A Navy veteran, he lived on Cape Cod in recent years.
Amsler, who was president of North Adams State College before coming to Salem, was a major influence on the college and a mentor to one of its future presidents, Nancy Harrington.
Amsler taught Harrington when she was an undergraduate at Salem State, served as her adviser in an honors program, and recruited her to work at the college when she was teaching in Peabody.
"He came out to visit and asked me to come over to the lab school as a teacher," Harrington said.
The "lab school," of course, was Horace Mann Laboratory School. Harrington not only taught there, but became its principal.
When Amsler became president of Salem State, Harrington was dean of graduate and continuing education and a member of his cabinet.
Amsler had a real impact on the college, Harrington said.
"Jim was one of the people who first mentioned the need for private fundraising. He sort of had a crystal ball and knew that state funding for higher education was going to begin to be cut back."
He also foresaw the college's future path.
"He was the first one, I believe, to mention the possibility of university status," she said.
Under Amsler, Salem State was organized into "schools" — the nursing school, business school and school of education — which was seen as an early university model.
One thing folks may not know about Amsler, who lived on Chandler Road, was his love of sports. Not surprising for a guy who played minor league ball for the Red Sox.
"His pride and joy always was the athletic program," Harrington said.
Amsler also was a terrific tennis player. One of his old tennis partners, in fact, was Michael Harrington, the former congressman who runs the Hawthorne Hotel.
In the drink
A 23-year-old Beverly man had a rough night Tuesday.
Or, technically, it was Wednesday morning when he fell into a muddy embankment down by Pickering Wharf and screamed for help. Around 12:30 a.m., a call came over the police scanner of a "man in water near Friendship."
Firefighter Tom Brophy got a ladder and pulled him over the seawall.
Did we mention the young man in the water had been drinking?
A long marriage
They held a small party yesterday at Grosvenor Park Nursing Center for Gerard and Marie LeBlanc, who celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary.
Marie, 96, was born a few months after the Salem Fire of 1914, which destroyed her family's home and most of the city. Her father, Napoleon Ouellette, built 1 Harbor St. after the fire, where he and his wife raised 13 children. A devoutly French-Catholic family, all the girls were named Marie-Laure and all the boys Joseph. Most went by their middle names.
Marie is the sister of the late Richard Ouellette, who was a well-known concert pianist.
Jerry, 93, worked for 38 years as a machinist at the Navy Yard in Charlestown. He had two brothers, one of whom died in one of the worst air disasters of its time, the 1948 Pan-Am crash at Shannon Airport in Ireland.
Although they knew each other as teenagers, the LeBlancs grew closer after attending an interesting marriage. His brother, Hermas, married her sister, Cecille.
"I was best man in my brother's wedding," Jerry said yesterday. Marie was maid of honor.
On Dec. 2, 1939, Jerry and Marie were married in St. Joseph Church — 71 years ago yesterday.
They have one child, Connie Claveau, who visits them all the time.
Fire academy
Four firefighter recruits will begin classes at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy in Stow come Jan. 3.
Shawn Edge, Patrick Finnemore, Christopher Palamara and Benjamin Potvin were sworn in at City Hall in October and will start their 12-week training next month, according to fire Chief David Cody.
They have been doing support work for the department but cannot be full-fledged firefighters until they graduate from the academy. The chief called them a welcome addition.
"We'll add four more people to the roster, which will be great," Cody said.
Best of luck to the newest batch of Salem jakes.
Coated in happiness
Some 200 coats and numerous bags of caps, mittens, scarves and undergarments were donated to nearby shelters and charities, thanks to the generosity of locals who brought the items to the Salem Police Department, according to Officer Robert Phelan, who works in the department's Community Impact Unit.
The Winter Clothing Drive was begun this year by Salem's Lisa Gardner with the help of Salem police, who accepted the donations in the lobby.
Homeless shelter staffer Jill Brown of Lifebridge came to the station daily to collect the clothing and store them at the shelter's thrift store at the former St. Mary's Church until the items were given out Nov. 13.
In addition to Lifebridge (the former Salem Mission), Citizens for Adequate Housing in Peabody, the Lynn Emergency Shelter and Salem's Healing Abuse Working for Change also received items.
In his formal report, Phelan described the clothing drive as a "huge success." He hopes the drive will become an annual event.
Kudos to everyone who chipped in.
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