Beppe Croce
Andrea Giuseppe "Beppe" Croce (11 December 1914 - 16 September 1986) was a sailor and yachtsman from Genova, Italy.
Yachting: from 1969 to his death in 1986, Croce was the first non-British president of the International Sailing Federation.
Croce was also the president of the Italian Sailing Federation (Federazione Italiana Vela) from 1957 to 1981 and of the Yacht Club Italiano from 1958 to 1986; he also was the vice president of the CONI (Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano) for a long time.
In 1939 Croce won the Italian University Star Class championship, while in 1969 he won the 5.50 class Italian Championship on Lake Garda, where in 1964 he had also won a very peculiar edition of the Centomiglia regatta, finished by only three out of fifty participant boats due to the presence of very severe weather conditions.
Croce also competed in the 6 metre class at the 1948 Summer Olympics and contributed organizing the 1960 Naples sailing Olympics as the president of the Olympic Committee.
In 1952, together with his friend René Levainville, Croce founded the famous Giraglia Cup, a regatta between St. Tropez and Genova organized by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the Yacht Club de France, which nowadays involves hundreds of sailors and maxi yachts.
Croce played also a key role in the organization of the 1982 Azzurra America's Cup Challenge, the first Italian America's Cup challenge, financed by his friend and former Fiat president Gianni Agnelli; the boat competed under the patronage of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, founded by Karim Aga Khan. Together with Agnelli, Croce had previously visited President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in order to persuade him to accept the Italian challenge.
After Croce's passing, a memorial celebration was held at London's Westminster Cathedral. The ceremony was attended, among others, by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, King Constantine II of Greece, King Olaf V of Norway and Prince Aga Khan IV.
In memory of Beppe Croce, the International Sailing Federation presents every year since 1989 the prestigious ISAF Beppe Croce Trophy to an individual who has made an outstanding voluntary contribution to the sport of sailing: the roll of honour is an impressive one, including multiple Olympic medallists, rules gurus and designers.
During his life Croce assembled a unique collection of Yacht Portrait Paintings from 1800, which adorned the walls of his house in the beloved Portofino, where he also owned the famous Hotel Splendido.
Recently, his family gifted the Galata Museo del Mare in Genova, Croce's hometown, with more than 100 paintings from such collection, which are now permanently on show at the museum's Beppe Croce Gallery.
Personal life
Beppe Croce was raised by his grandfather Beppe Croce, after his father Luigi passed away in 1918 for a disease contracted while serving as an Army Officer in Trieste during World War I.
Beppe's grandfather was an insurer, but also a keen sportsman and the founder of the Italian Tennis Federation (Federazione Italiana Tennis) which he presided from 1913 to 1929; he also presided the Tennis Club Genova from 1913 to 1929. The 1922 edition of the Davis Cup was held in Croce's garden in Nervi, Genova, where he had some grass courts installed for the purpose.
Beppe's other grandfather, Emilio Borzino, was the president of the Italian Liberal Party until 1927.
Beppe served as an officer during World War II; after the 1943 armistice he remained faithful to the King Vittorio Emanuele III and fought the Nazis as a liberal partisan.
From 1946 to 1980 Beppe took the presidency of Lloyd Italico, the insurance company founded by his grandfather.
Married to Countess Umberta Raggio, Croce had three sons, Luigi, Carlo and Manuela and several grandsons and great-grandsons.
Following his father's steps, Beppe's son Carlo is the actual president of the ISAF - International Sailing Federation (since 2013), of the Fiv - Italian Sailing Federation (since 2009) and of the Yacht Club Italiano (since 1997).