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Gene Dermody is a former president of the Federation of Gay Games, and the current wrestling coordinator for the Sydney 2002 Gay Games. He has been an organizer, coach, and medalist in every Gay Games since 1982. He currently is one of the Federation contract negotiators for the Montreal 2006 Gay Games, and the Federation technical
advisor.
Gene was born and raised in North Jersey, and is a graduate of St. Peter's Prep of Jersey City. Gene began wrestling as a 'walk-on' at New York University in 1966, and has not 'walked off' since. He was a high school chemistry/physics teacher and head wrestling coach for 13 years in northern
New Jersey (Hawthorne, Paramus Catholic, and Leonia high schools), before moving to San Francisco for the first Gay Games in 1982.
He later became coach of the Golden Gate Wrestling Club (GGWC), an organization founded by several of the Gay Games founders, including 1968 Olympian Tom Waddell. Today GGWC is a San Francsico recreation program,
sanctioned and charted since 1986 by USA Wrestling.
Recently, Gene has had two journalistic successes which have brought him notoriety. First was his personal remembrance of Father Mychal Judge of 9-11 NYFD fame, who was his pastor in the early 1960s. The second was a history of the Gay Games Movement published in an anthology "Out in the Castro: Desire, Promise, and Activism," which has been nominated for a 2002 Lambda Literary Award.
Gene has been a systems programmer with INDUS International of San Francisco for the past 10 years.
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