Off-list, Ken Stone has passed along news of the death, on January 10th, of former pole vault world record holder George Varoff. The AP obit says Varoff set his record of 14'6"* (4.43m) in 1936.
To help put Varoff in context, here are the world records performances from 14' to 15': 4.30 (14'1 5/8") William Miller USA 1932-07-16 Stanford 4.30 (14'1 5/8) William Graber USA 1932-07-16 Stanford 4.37 (14'4 3/8") William Graber USA 1932-07-16 Stanford 4.39 (14'5 1/8") Keith Brown USA 1935-06-01 Cambridge 4.43 (14'6 1/4")* George Varoff USA 1936-07-04 Princeton 4.45 (14'7 3/8") William Sefton USA 1937-04-10 Los Angeles 4.48 (14'8 1/2") Earle Meadows USA 1937-05-08 Stanford 4.48 (14'8 1/2") William Sefton USA 1937-05-08 Stanford 4.54 (14'11") William Sefton USA 1937-05-29 Los Angeles 4.54 (14'11") Earle Meadows USA 1937-05-29 Los Angeles 4.57 (15') Dutch Warmerdam USA 1940-04-13 Berkeley Vault statistician Gerard Dumas provided this additional information about Varoff's career: Year Best Mark Dates and Venues. World ranking. 1933 13'3 3/4" 4.05m (1) 29.04 San Francisco 26th 1934 13'0" 3.96,2m unverified. 1935 12'6" 3.80,9m " " 1936 14'6 1/2* 4.43,1m (1) 04.07 Princeton 1st 1937 14'7 5/8" 4.46,1m (4) 03.07 Milwaukee 4th 1938 14'4 1/2" 4.38m (1) 11.09 Milano,Italy 4th 1939 14'4" 4.36,8m (1=) 22.04 Eugene 5th * - I don't have an explanation for the differences in the exact height, from source to source: probably another instance of repeated conversions giving different calculations.
