of the past year's sailing events. One of the great attractions was his ability to catch the amusing and exhilarating aspects of sailing, not only on film, but in his quick-witted, dry-humored delivery peppered with terms like "callapso flapitis", referring to frantic moments on the boat. Biddle was his own production company, performing the tasks of: contact agent, scheduler, publicist, copywriter, photo developer, poster designer, accountant, cinematographer, film editor, scriptwriter, music editor, driver, porter, set-up man and performer. Family life Biddle married Mary McMichael in 1961 in Jamestown, Rhode Island and they had two children, Sophie in 1964 and Scott in 1966. Mary assisted John in filming the early America's Cup races. She had a stroke shortly after the birth of Scott and died five years later. Following this, Biddle managed to spend time at home with his children while continuing his career on the road and was able to include Sophie and Scott on trips to Bermuda, a cruise to Maine and trips to various lecture dates. In March 1977, he married Amy McKay van Roden in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania with three stepchildren: Winifred, Peter and Julie. Career highlights Biddle filmed two races multiple times. The Bermuda Race he sailed 11 times to capture the stories that this pre-eminent, East Coast distance race delivered. Despite the race's long history and prestige, Biddle is the only film-maker to have focused on it. He also filmed the international yacht racing event, the America's Cup, all ten times when 12-metre class boats were used, from 1958 to 1987. For this, he took footage of the Sparkman & Stephens test tanks, of the spring practices, the summer trials, the Newport, Rhode Island balls, the dock happenings and the September finals. He was invited to shoot on board the 12-metre yachts by mercurial skippers including Ted Turner, Dennis Conner, Ted Hood and Bus Mosbacher. The rare invitations were granted because of his nautical proficiency and ability to get key shots while staying clear of onboard action. Final years After moving to Jamestown in 1980, Biddle became active with the Jamestown Community Chorus and directed the town talent show for several years. During his career, Biddle created 140 sailing films which he placed into 41 annual lecture shows from 1956 to 1996. He made over 3,000 presentations to audiences as large as 3,000 people. In the summer of 2008, Biddle was nominated for induction into