Sad news that Rolf Engen, the commissioner of volleyball at the 1984 Olympic Games, passed away on 31 July, at age 88.
Initially a basketball player, he turned to volleyball after an injury and was a setter on the first UCLA volleyball team and then an All-American in 1953 and 1954. He was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. teams at the 1955 and 1959 Pan American Games and inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1991.
He was a highly-successful wine importer and taste-maker and memorably organized an outstanding volleyball competition at the Long Beach Arena for the 1984 Games, with a calm and wit that endeared him to the players, officials, staff and volunteers. He passed away at his home in Laguna Beach, California.
