One to One with Bill Goodman:
Tori Murden McClure
aired August 11 and 13, 2006
She was the first woman to row solo across an ocean, the first woman to ski to the South Pole, and the first woman to climb Lewis Nunatuk in the Antarctic. She has also earned two master’s degrees and a law degree. Tori Murden McClure sits down to talk with Bill Goodman about her many and varied accomplishments and the goals she still has for herself on this edition of One to One.
A Louisville native, Tori Murden made world headlines in 1999 when she set out to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone. After 81 days of rowing and 2,962 nautical miles, she reached her goal on December 3. An interviewer at the time described her as “a rare athlete who combines a natural sense of humility with an unending desire for personal challenge.”
She is also an accomplished climber, having reached the summit of Antarctica’s Lewis Nunatuk, Alaska’s Mount Silverthrone, and Mount Kenya in Africa. And she has completed numerous ice climbing and kayaking expeditions.
McClure has made a practice of challenging her mind as well as her body. She received a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a master’s degree in divinity from Harvard University, earned a law degree from the University of Louisville and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in October 1995, and completed a master’s in fine arts at Louisville’s Spalding University in 2005. She now works at Spalding as the vice president of external relations, enrollment management, and student affairs.
