Welcome to the AARP National Spelling Bee website!
Congratulations to Larry Grossman, the winner of the 2008 AARP Magazine National Spelling Bee!
Sign up for next year’s Bee! Register now for the 2009 AARP National Spelling Bee scheduled for Saturday, June 20, 2009 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
2008 Oral Round finalists and the order in which they were eliminated (duplicate numbers indicate spellers eliminated in the same round)
1. Larry Grossman - Northwood, N.D. - Age 56 - WINNER!
2. Michael Petrina, Jr. - Arlington, Va. - Age 63
3. Scott Firebaugh - Knoxville, Tenn. - Age 54
4. Norman Zucker - Sebastopol, Calif. - Age 61
5. Bill Long - Salem, Ore. - Age 56
6. Randy Hilfman - Woodinville, Wash. - Age 58
7. Jane Wiggs - Jacksonville, Florida - Age 62
8. Joan Saxton - Sausalito, Calif. - Age 66
8. Rodney Murray - Middletown, Del. - Age 54
9. Kent Stockton - Riverton, Wyo. - Age 66
9. Sandra Marvin - Englewood, Colo. - Age 60
9. Nancy Friedlander - San Diego, Calif. - Age 61
9. Marlene Harry - Brownsburg, Ind. - Age 56
9. Kate Karp - Long Beach, Calif. - Age 59
10. Tony Suschil - Hudson, Ohio - Age 63
10. Pam Leininger - Durango, Colo. - Age 61
The 2008 Bee
And another AARP National Spelling Bee has come and gone. This year’s Bee had some special highlights… during the Friday night reception, members of the cast of the Cheyenne Little Theatre’s Melodrama performed a special script they had written just for the spellers (“What’s a 10-letter word that starts with gas….. wrong, it’s automobile”). Spellers got into the spirit of the event, cheering for the hero, and booing the villain. Our special thanks go to the cast and crew – that was a lot of fun.
Little America did an outstanding job of hosting our spellers. The food was excellent and the newly remodeled facility is beautiful.
But the real work began Saturday morning, when we all hunkered down to spell. Word Wizard Brian Greene softened everyone up with the first word “welcome”, but quickly got into more challenging fare such as tramontane, olefin, and losel. By the time we finished the written rounds, we knew everyone there was serious about spelling. You had to get at least 78 correct out of the 100 words to make it to the oral rounds, and that meant clearing words like chough, crwth, recce, and quoits.
Due to a tie for the fifteenth spot, 16 spellers made it, and began the uphill climb to the championship. They breezed past orgeat and tmesis, and conquered pterylae and eriophyid. Suddenly, we were down to the final four spellers. We began a round, and two of them missed their words. That meant a spell-off for third and fourth place. Two spell-off rounds later, and Norman Zucker was declared the fourth place winner, with Scott Firebaugh coming in third. Now only two competitors were left. Each one was given a word, and in a flash, it was over. Larry Grossman was crowned champion, and the best adult speller in the nation. Michael Petrina, Jr. chased him all the way, and came in second.
We had a very unusual footnote to the results this year. The top five finishers in the written rounds finished in the top five in the oral rounds. That hasn’t happened before… we’ll have to see if this was a fluke or the start of a trend.
As for me, it’s off to practice pronounciation for next year’s Bee.
Dave Lerner
Official Pronouncer Guy
AARP National Spelling Bee
2008 Sponsors
|
