Thorp graduated from Navy in 1977 after being awarded an engraved cup testifying that he was the men’s team’s most dedicated fan.
When he came back to Navy, he taught Mechanical and Systems Engineering and won the Clements Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008. He published numerous research articles. He held several different positions, including leading Navy’s Engineering and Weapons Division at one point.
He balanced his academic excellence with another side as an accomplished saxophonist, as well as an avid fisherman at the New Jersey shore. He relished family time, but opened his house to his Navy family. On any given weekend, a half dozen players might be in his home.
“I don’t know how they paid for all us midshipmen to go over there and eat all their food,” said Bryan Wolfe, a 2003 Navy graduate. “They fed us all the time.”
A devout Catholic, Thorp’s greatest passion outside of his faith and his family of wife Kathy and four children was serving as academic representative for the Navy men’s team for the past 20 years until his death at age 62 on Oct. 29 after a year-long battle with an aggressive cancer.
“He was so happy to be a part of the men’s lacrosse program,” Sowell said. “He was a great fan of our boys. The respect returned to him was given to him 10 times over, the people that came into town the last couple days.”
Former Navy head coach and now Furman head coach Richie Meade as well as his former Navy assistant and now Maryland head coach John Tillman came to the funeral.
“In my life, I haven’t met anybody like Owen Thorp,” Meade said. “When I talked to everyone, I said, ‘This is a gathering of the blessed because we all knew Captain Thorp.’”
Navy players and coaches couldn’t come up with enough accolades to describe Thorp’s impact on the program.
He took over as academic representative shortly before 2000, and Brianas was one of the first people he helped get through the school. As a junior, Brianas was diagnosed with cancer himself, and it came back again when he was a senior and jeopardized his graduation while undergoing chemotherapy.
“You have a guy like Captain Thorp who is the ultimate teammate and steps up to the plate and coordinates tests for me remotely and schoolwork and assignments I can do from home between treatment cycles,” Brianas said. “Over the course of six weeks, he was just an incredible teammate for me and I ended up graduating on time. It’s something I’ll remember forever with the role he played with me.
“And now play that out for the hundreds and hundreds of midshipmen that he’s impacted just on the lacrosse team and hundreds more that he’s counseled separately from the lacrosse team and you have an enormous number of people that he’s impacted.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF NAVY ATHLETICS
Andy Tormey, pictured at center above at the 2009 Patriot League Championship, said Captain Thorp had a calming influence for every member of the team, both on and off the field.
Andy Tormey was a sophomore in 2006 when he started getting more playing time. He was also falling behind in chemistry and worried he would have to choose between his first road trip with the team and a chemistry exam.
“He talked to the teacher on his own accord and said he’d administer the test,” Tormey said. “I was able to take the test remotely on the trip. That prioritization – he knew how important both were to me – and he helped me de-conflict through the adversity.”
Thorp, says Tormey, always had a calming influence. He was that same positive presence for the Midshipmen for two decades.
“He can light up a room without even saying a word,” said senior captain Jack Ray. “When he came out to practice, everyone was excited. Every kid would come up and ask how he was doing.”
Thorp, though, was always more concerned about others above himself. Players got that impression early from him.
“He was so caring,” said senior captain DJ Plumer. “He always wanted to know how you were doing. It was never about him. He always had a smile on his face. He always cared more about you than him.”
It was the same in his final days. Meade spoke to Thorp the day before he died.
“The last thing he asked me was, ‘Richie, how’s your family doing?’” Meade said. Thorp had a way of making everyone feel important.
“He was very, very valuable and always there,” Meade said. “He’d be at the tailgates after games. He cared about you. He cared about your parents and your brother and sister and knew your story. That’s what great leaders do – they give themselves to other people. He was a great leader.”
Thorp did everything possible to keep players on track academically.
“He brought his own personal style and his way about it and it was very, very effective,” Meade said. “We would have two buses go to every game, and it wasn’t because we had so many guys. Owen wanted a bus for guys that were struggling academically so that they could have a good environment to study. He would spend his time on that bus tutoring people.”
Thorp had a unique way of reading just what every player needed. If a player needed help, he helped to arrange it. If they needed space, he gave it to them. He helped to guide players through the academy to prepare them for their service.
“They learn their work ethic and those types of things at the academy while struggling a little bit,” Meade said. “Owen’s the guy who taught them. That’s his legacy. The legacy will continue. It’s not just the academic stuff. He was a leadership mentor. The intangible things that he taught them are going to benefit them the rest of their lives.”
Wolfe feels fortunate to have drawn Thorp as his sponsor parent for his plebe year. Sponsor parents partner with freshmen to help them adjust to the rigors of the academy.
“For almost every weekend of my freshman year at the Naval Academy, I spent all day at his house with Mrs. Thorp, Captain Thorp and his four kids,” Wolfe said. “It was my family away from my family.
“He was there to support you and listen to you and give you whatever you needed to be successful,” Wolfe added. “What I needed at that time was a family environment where I could be myself.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF NAVY ATHLETICS
Despite Navy's 14-13 loss to Syracuse in the 2004 national championship game, Captain Thorp accompanied team captain Bucky Morris to the center of the field accept the runner-up trophy.
Thorp’s impact extended beyond his role as academic representative. A 1978 graduate who played four years of lacrosse, Roy Cranford knew Thorp a little from school, and saw him regularly at lacrosse events, but they weren’t much more than acquaintances.
“When my son was being recruited there, I talked to him a bit and he was very helpful from that aspect as well,” Cranford said. “It wasn’t just the kids on the team, but the kids that were going to join the Navy and go to the Naval Academy and make that commitment that he cared about.”
Said Duffy: “The people that know him closely would tell you how gracious he is and how warm he is and how professional he is. I remember instantly being impressed with his demeanor and his professional bearing and his concern for the midshipmen.”
Even after players graduated, Thorp helped however possible. He tutored Adam Borcz as he began Nuclear Power School when the 2001 graduate was drafted and starting playing in the MLL. Players find themselves thinking back to Thorp’s wisdom.
“I got out of the military about four years ago and I’m with a business and have a family and kids and everything, and a lot of the lessons he taught me when I was there are very much applicable in my life now,” Tormey said. “Whether it’s when you meet someone for the first time look them in the eye and care about what they’re saying and listening to what they’re saying and trying to make that impact, whether it’s from an acquaintance standpoint, from a friendship standpoint or from a leadership standpoint, there’s so many life lessons he taught just on those types of interactions and also from a big-scale life prioritization standpoint, he was a big faith person, family, then everything else – whether it was school, military.”