Robert Trotman, co-founder of Nu-Finmen, nationally renowned swim program for minority youth, dies at 82

Robert Trotman, whose nationally renowned swim program shattered stereotypes and broke down barriers for thousands of minority youths, died on March 22 at his home in Massapequa after suffering a heart attack. He was 82.

In 1959, Trotman co-founded the Nu-Finmen Swim Team, formerly based in Hempstead and in Brooklyn, which provided a chance to swim to thousands of children from Long Island, Queens and elsewhere who may never have had the opportunity.

Jennifer Ann Trotman, of Massapequa, said her father grew up in an era where it was expected that Black people could not swim and places for minorities to learn the sport did not exist.

“His goal was to let the world know that Black kids do swim and that they’re good at it and they earn scholarships, and they make careers of it and that anything’s possible and nothing can hold you back,” said Trotman, who served as head coach of Queens' York College swim team for 14 years, during a time when her father was assistant coach. “It didn't matter where it was. My dad would drive to a pool if there were kids there.”

Robert Trotman was born in Harlem, the third of four children, all since deceased, to Gladstone Trotman, a presser of clothes, and Irma Trotman, a homemaker.

A natural athlete, Robert Trotman was selected as the first Black swim team captain at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. 

At the age of 16, Trotman quit his after-school job at a supermarket to spend his afternoons swimming at the bath house on 134th Street in Harlem to strengthen his skills to become a lifeguard.

Trotman swam competitively on an AAU team while also serving as his high school’s glee club president, performing with a group known as the Harmoneers at the Apollo Theater. He later joined the doo-wop group Norman Fox & The Rob Roys.

Patricia Ann Trotman, 81, met her future husband during a Harmoneers practice at a friend’s home. Robert Trotman, she said, followed her to the bus stop after practice and the two quickly began dating. The high school sweethearts were married for 60 years and had two children: Jennifer and Todd Trotman, also of Massapequa.

“He wanted every child that he came across to be a better person,” said Patricia Trotman, who moved her family to Long Island’s South Shore in the early 1970s. “And he did that by teaching them to swim and hoping that they get into the best high schools and the best colleges. That was his dream, for them to get a degree and to improve their lives.”

In 1962, Robert Trotman enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving two years in the 82nd Airborne Paratrooper Division while stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

After returning home, he took classes at Queens College but left before obtaining a degree, focusing on his careers as a lifeguard captain, MTA motorman and as head of the burgeoning Finmen Swim Club, as it was then known.

During its nearly 60 years of operation, the club, which became a member of USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, produced dozens of nationally recognized athletes, Junior Olympians, NCAA All-Americans and county champions. The club, now based in Queens, is the oldest minority swim team in the country.

Karima Tonge, of Hempstead Village, met Trotman when she was 8 years old, learning to swim in Kennedy Park. Tonge said Trotman was a father figure, helping instill a work ethic focused on punctuality — swimmers who showed up only on time are late; swimmers who show up early are on time, he would often say — personal responsibility and dogged determination.

“This man has shaped my entire existence,” said Tonge, who coaches with Nu-Finmen while serving as dean at the Health, Arts, Robotics and Technology High School in Queens. “The person that I am I give him all the credit. He was the dad that I didn't have.”

A tough love disciplinarian with taste for repetition, Trotman would constantly tell his students: “I’ll give you what you need, but you have to work for what you want.”

Dina Graham, formerly of Uniondale and now of Manhattan, said Trotman began teaching her to swim before she learned to walk.

“He impacted people in ways that I didn't even think was possible,” said Graham, who became a swim instructor. “ … He was the only male figure in my life that really had any kind of influence on me. And I can say everything that I am today is because of the person that he was to me.”

Trotman became the first minority coach to train age-group swimmers at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, received the 2014 Diversity and Inclusion Award from United States Swimming and started the Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational Swim meet. He retired shortly before the pandemic.

“He was a phenomenal man who touched so many lives in a positive way,” Jennifer Trotman said. “He was a living legend for Black men and women."

Besides his two children and widow, Trotman is survived by his sisters-in-law, Janet Poitier and Francis Trotman, and brother-in-law, Paul Covington.

A funeral Mass for Trotman was held March 30 at St. Martin of Tours R.C. Church in Amityville followed by interment with military honors at Calverton National Cemetery.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.