University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Swimming Great Pete Worthen Passes Away
March 21, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
Peter Thatcher Worthen (April 30, 1944 - March 16, 2017) passed away on March 16, 2017 at age 72 surrounded by family.
Worthen was one of the great Tar Heel swimmers of the mid-1960s, swimming on teams coached by Pat Earey which were amongst the best in Tar Heel history, finishing 12th in his junior season and ninth in his senior year in the NCAA Championships.
Worthen swam on UNC's ACC championship team in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 1965.
He earned first-team All-America honors in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle in 1965. In both 1965 and 1967 he swam on UNC's All-America 400-yard freestyle relay squads.
He was born on April 30, 1944 in Boston, Mass. Worthen grew up in Andover, Mass. where he attended the Pike School. He attended Belmont School in Massachusetts, and a post graduate year at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
Worthen attended the University of North Carolina where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and awarded All-America status in swimming. It was at Chapel Hill that Peter met the love of his life, Sally Bingham Vann, with whom he recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Following his time in Chapel Hill, Peter attended Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Mr. Worthen went on to become President of Worthen Industries in Nashua, New H.H. until 1985. In December of 1985, Mr. Worthen acquired Schreiber LLC, a manufacturer of water resource recovery equipment, in Trussville, Alabama. At that time, he moved his family to Birmingham to be with Sally's family, and they had resided there ever since.
