Trish Bostrom, ’72, knows how to make a big impression. As a student-athlete at the University of Washington in the pre-Title IX days, she challenged the UW because she wanted to play on the men’s tennis team. (She won the right and went on to win an NCAA title.)
She went on to have a bountiful pro tennis career. She played five years in the World Team Tennis league, and was ranked as high as fifth in the world in doubles in 1978 and 35th in singles in 1977. Her career highlight: a mixed doubles team victory over a team with Billie Jean king on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 1977.
Today, Bostrom, a Seattle attorney, continues to play three times a week at the Seattle Tennis Club. And every June, she travels to Wimbledon to watch the world’s premier tournament and to attend an annual reunion of retired players.
But around her alma mater – where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1972 – Bostrom is known for more than her killer backhand.
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For years, she has been one of the most dedicated – and effervescent – volunteers for the UW Alumni Association. To honor her many years of service to the alumni association and the UW, she is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed upon UWAA volunteers and members.
Bostrom spent a decade on the UWAA Board of Trustees and was board president in 2000. She has also been one of the most popular hosts for the trips offered by UW Alumni Tours. She even has her own set of “groupies” – about a dozen alumni — who sign up to travel on a UW Alumni Tours trip when she is the host. Most of them have traveled with her all over the world for a decade.
And that’s on top of myriad volunteer roles she has held.
“Volunteering for the alumni association gave me a great appreciation for how important the UW is for Seattle, the state of Washington, and even the nation,” Bostrom says. “You really get to understand how critical the UW is. Besides, it is really fun.”