The legacy of former US Open champion Ken Flach (pictured above-left) continues to live on through a non-profit educational foundation established in his name.
Flach, a two-time US Open men's doubles champion and Olympic gold-medal winner, passed away almost 18 months ago in March 2018 due to a blood infection called sepsis.
Earlier this year, Flach's widow Christina created the Ken Flach Foundation on the one-year-anniversary of his death to benefit under-resourced youth at the Northern Lights School in Oakland, Calif.
"I think he would be so incredibly proud," Mrs. Flach said. "He would be shocked. He wouldn't do it, but he'd be glad that I'm doing it. I just think it's important. I feel like he did such amazing things while he was alive. He was such an amazing father and husband and friend and supporter of tennis. I feel like this is a natural segue to keep his memory alive."
Flach won the first of his four Grand Slam men's doubles titles in 1985, partnering with Robert Seguso to claim the US Open. The duo then won consecutive doubles titles at Wimbledon in 1987 and 1988 before Flach won the 1993 US Open doubles title at Flushing Meadows with fellow American Rick Leach. Flach also won the 1986 Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Kathy Jordan and teamed up with Seguso to claim the gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
In total, Flach won 34 men's doubles titles and reached the championship match of 24 others. He went 11-2 for the U.S. in Davis Cup play and later coached at Vanderbilt University and served as the director of tennis at Rolling Hills Club in Novato, Calif.
Mrs. Flach hopes to raise between $70,000 and $100,000 through the Ken Flach Foundation this year to send between three and five children to Northern Lights School, a non-profit institution for children from preschool through 8th grade that welcomes students from all socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Mrs. Flach says she would like to see the foundation grow each year. Her family has been a supporter of Northern Lights for more than a decade after she set up a foundation at the school following the death of her infant son Beau Friedman in 2006.
"I want to help children from minority backgrounds, children that have been forgotten. I don't want them to be forgotten," she said. "I want them to be able to play sports after school and to get an education and go to college.
"Everyone there is on a scholarship, but the entire school is run solely by donations and grants. We have a 98-percent success rate of them going on to high school and graduating. I want them to have the opportunities that we've had."
Today, Mrs. Flach volunteers with the Sepsis Alliance charity to help raise awareness of the condition and to highlight that sespsis is curable if treated in a timely fashion.
She hopes that by educating families and healthcare professionals, others will not have to suffer the way her husband did.
Otherwise perfectly healthy, the 54-year-old California resident and St. Louis native died just four days after being diagnosed with the condition after initially becoming ill while playing golf.
"My husband went from walking into the emergency [room] and in two hours being on life support," Mrs. Flach said Saturday on the eve of Sepsis Awareness Month, which takes place throughout September. "That was Thursday. On Monday, we took him off life support. He was young, completely healthy and strong.
"Most people think, 'I'll wait until tomorrow to go to the doctor. I'll feel better.' There's not a tomorrow. You need to go. I would tell people to get to the hospital as soon as possible. I would never want anyone to feel what I felt."
To learn more about the Sepsis Alliance, click here. For information about Northern Lights School, click here.
