Calvin Stamp of Lawrenceville believed in being “the best you can be.”
The Jamaican-born weight lifter applied that philosophy in life – competing twice in the Olympics and bringing home two bronze medals at the Pan American Games during the 1980s.
He also put it to work helping his daughter and other Grayson High School track team members train to reach their own athletic goals.
“He was the type of guy who, when you talked to him, inspired you to be a better person,” said Michael Pezent, a teacher at Grayson High and the school’s former track and football coach.
Calvin Washington Stamp, 60, a two-time Olympian, Pan American Games medalist, devoted family man and beloved Grayson High volunteer coach, died Dec. 30 in a single-car crash in DeKalb County.
A funeral service honoring his life will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Tom M. Wages Lawrenceville Chapel at 120 Scenic Hwy N., with Pastor Garry Pearl Pierce officiating. Family visitation will be at 1 p.m.
Born June 25, 1958, Stamp was the only Jamaican weight lifter to make it into the Olympics twice.
He competed in the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles, finishing ninth in the heavyweight category. He was pumping iron again in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, winding up in 11th place in the super-heavyweight division.
His two bronze medals came in 1983 and 1987 in the Pan American Games.
Moving to Lawrenceville 15 years ago for his job, Stamp became a devoted volunteer at Grayson High School, where youngest daughter Natasha, now 20 and a student athlete at the University of Southern California, was a track team member.
Brian DeBerry, athletic director at Grayson High School, said that with Stamp’s death “our community has lost a tremendous volunteer.”
“He was always here with a smiling face and just willing to do anything,” DeBerry said.
Pezent said Stamp knew a great deal about training and was happy to share his knowledge and expertise with Grayson High’s student athletes.
“He was the most positive person I’ve ever known,” Pezent said. “The kids really related to him. For some who he trained, he was almost a father figure.”
Stamp kept up with team members he mentored even after they’d moved on to college.
“He was just very supportive … just an exceptional individual,” Pezent said. “He was almost bigger than life.”
The two men still talked and texted, even though Pezent no longer coached and Stamp no longer had a student at Grayson High.
“He was always sending me inspirational quotes,” Pezent recalled.
Karet Stamp, Stamp’s wife of more than 30 years, said weight lifting fit her husband.
“He was always a very health-conscious person,” she said.
Stamp saw the possibilities in everything, Karet Stamp said. “He always said: ‘Be the best you can be’.”
He loved travel, fishing, attending track and field meets, spending time with daughters Natasha and Daniella and gazing at the sky at night through a telescope.
“It is so hard to have lost such a good soul, a good human being,” Karet Stamp said. “I miss most his optimistic personality.”
Stamp is survived by his wife Karet Stamp; mother, Gretel Stamp; daughters, Daniella Stamp and Natasha Stamp; sisters, Orline Able-Thomas, Sharon Anderson, Paula McIntosh, Patricia Stamp, Michelle Calendar, and Simone Sutherland; and brothers, Earl Forrester, Frank Stamp, John Stamp, Barrington Stamp, Michael Stamp, and Paul Stamp.
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