Lynda Hathaway, Beloved Portland Ice Skating Coach, Dies At 81

Apr. 23—Lynda Hathaway, who coached 6-year-old girls and future NHL prospects alike as the longtime director of skating at Troubh Ice Arena in Portland, died on April 20. She was 81.

Hathaway began leading the Portland ice rink's programs in 1984 when what was then called the Portland Ice Arena was looking for a new coach. Hathaway and her friend Ann Hanson decided to take up the program and led it together for the next 30-odd years.

Hathaway has been a teacher and mentor to hundreds, if not thousands, of young hockey players and figure skaters in the years since.

Her daughters described her as a loving, passionate mother and grandmother who put her heart into helping others, especially coaching young skaters who had financial needs or disabilities.

"The only place she ever judged us was on the ice," her daughter Lisa Hathaway said.

Some of Hathaway's hockey-playing students believed they were stronger skaters and that she wouldn't be able to teach them in her figure skates. Hathaway always proved them wrong and took pride in coaching hockey with her lipstick and mascara on.

In her lessons, she blended elements of both figure skating and ice hockey and gave each of her students an increased flair and unique understanding of their craft, her students recounted.

"Lynda not only encouraged me to keep skating but instilled a passion that carried me through," said former student Ashley Flaherty. "With her guidance and coaching, before you know it, I felt at ease on the ice. We began working on jumps and spins together, and I continued to skate up until I graduated high school. I wouldn't have made it without her."

There weren't many aspects of Troubh's figure skating program that Hathaway didn't have a hand in. She would build props for the ice shows, design her students' skating dresses, cut and cue all of their music, and make sure all of it fit into her always-clear artistic vision.

In 1975, she started coaching figure skating part-time in Yarmouth, where she was instilled with the love and pride of coaching. Even after heading up Portland's skating program about a decade later, Hathaway continued coaching as a part-time gig until the late '90s, when she began teaching skating full time.

Outside of skating, Hathaway found peace and quiet at Popham Beach and Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park, said her daughter Kristen Hathaway Stills. She loved reading, gardening, painting and classical music. She spent much time with family and friends, including everyone in the skating community who "made her a family member," Stills said.

Hathaway set high standards for her students in her four decades leading southern Maine skating programs. But former students recounted her personal, kind and caring approach to coaching.

It was an approach that passed Hathaway's love for the sport on to hundreds of her students and their families, including Val Smith and her daughter Rose, who skated with Hathaway for years growing up. Rose now coaches a hockey team in British Columbia, Canada.

"Her legacy is going to live on because so many kids are still skating. Not just that, but they're coaching. They're sharing their love for the sport as well, and it's because of Lynda," Val Smith said. "There's not a lot of people in the world who leave that kind of a mark. How do you thank somebody for that?"

Molly Spindler Smith was a student of Hathaway's who later became a skating coach with her at Troubh: "Lynda has been my mentor for 32 years at least. She was a one-of-a-kind lady," she said.

Hathaway always carried a small camera with her, Smith remembered, and would snap photos of skaters landing axels, doing tricks and performing on the ice — even if she wasn't their coach. She wanted to make sure those kids remembered those moments.

In a sport where most begin learning to skate at the same time they're learning to walk, many coaches focus their efforts solely on younger skaters. Hathaway, however, coached skaters of all ages and always did it with a little humor, Smith said.

"She made sure everyone was included. It didn't matter whether you were her private student or a new adult to skating, if you were a tot who just started in the skating program, or a national competitor," Smith said. "She made everyone feel like they were worth her time and her energy."

Caroline Paras, who Hathaway helped coach to several national skating championships, said she would not have fallen in love with figure skating were it not for Hathaway and her style of coaching.

"Even more than I loved performing, I loved the creative process of working with Coach Lynda to make something magic, out of a crazy idea that started over wine," Paras recalled.

Hathaway was tough and set high expectations. When Paras performed a move that was acceptable but not exceptional, Hathaway would often say one of her favorite phrases: "Good enough for government work."

But coupled with Hathaway's uniquely personal and caring approach to her coaching on the ice and her skaters off of it, those standards helped Paras — and many others — push themselves to excel.

"As an adult who had never participated or competed in a single sport in my K-12 years, I learned many important life lessons and mottos from Lynda," Paras said. "The one I repeat to myself all that the time is that nothing in life — not a job interview nor a public presentation — will ever be as hard as standing in front of 500 people at center ice in Portland Ice Arena waiting for your music to begin.

"And with Coach Lynda's unwavering belief in me, you start your program."

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