Oak Harbor High School Volunteer Athletic Trainer:  1971-2004 

Born in the Netherlands, Pete was an enthusiastic athlete in multiple sports.  He received formal training in Sports Instruction and Massage which was to prove crucial for his future.  After the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, Pete became active in the Dutch Resistance and was involved in smuggling Allied air crews and Jewish children out of Nazi-occupied territory.  Betrayed by a double agent, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death.  Miraculously, the death sentence was not carried out and Pete was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp for several years, surviving in the most inhumane conditions.  His skill in massage therapy led to his working in the camp infirmary and probably saved his life. 

When the camp was liberated by the Russians, Pete volunteered to remain to care for other sick survivors.  Hulswit was involved in repatriating former Dutch POW’s, interpreting in post-war cases against war criminals, and in humanitarian work for the Dutch Red Cross, the British Royal Air Force and UNICEF.  Post-war, Pete’s service in the resistance was recognized when he was awarded the Resistance Memorial Cross by the Dutch Government.  He was also awarded a lifetime pension from the Dutch government based on his resistance service. 

Hulswit and his wife Helen immigrated to the United States in 1957 and settled in Oak Harbor, Washington.  Pete was employed by a regional dairy farm and then opened a dairy store in town. In 1970 he helped the Oak Harbor High School mile relay team to the point that they won the State Championships.  From 1971 to his partial retirement in 1991, Hulswit was almost a daily fixture in the Oak Harbor High School Training room and at competitions in football, wrestling and track.

In 1971 he started working with a young Doctor with an interest in sports medicine, Dr. Warren Howe (WNWHOF-2003).  They became almost inseparable as a team treating student athletes especially in the sport of wrestling.  After 1991 and until 2004, Pete continued attending and working actively at wrestling competitions and tournaments.  He participated in all Washington State High School Wrestling Tournaments as an athletic trainer/massage therapist from 1972-2004 working with any athlete requesting his help.

Pete Hulswit’s volunteer efforts have been honored by many.  He was very proud of gaining his American citizenship in 1962.  He was awarded the Paul Reiman-Bo Campbell-Ken Driscoll Award in 1982.  In 1990 WIAA District One honored his countless hours of volunteer work with High School sports.  The Washington Wrestling Coaches Association presented him the Joe Babbitt Contributors Award in 1999 and the Oak Harbor High School Training Room was dedicated to Hulswit in 2009. 

Pete passed away December 27, 2007, at the age of 92.  Pete and Helen had one adult child, Gloria Carothers.  They also had one grandchild, Kyle and 4 great grandchildren Peter, Kinley, Cade and Quinn.