Kerry Grundlingh ’27 appeared shy at first, but her presence was loud. She left a lasting impression on all who had the privilege of calling her a friend.
“She’s definitely a presence that will never go away. She filled every room she was in, and everyone knew she was there. She was a loud, vibrant, bubbly person,” Jess Mabey ’27 told The Daily Princetonian.
Grundlingh passed away in a cycling accident in her hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday, July 26. She was 21. An economics major and a member of Mathey College, Grundlingh was a graduate of St. Mary’s School, Waverley.
Grundlingh was a member of Princeton’s women’s openweight rowing team, and represented South Africa several times at the national age-group level. This past season, she rowed in the 1V boat that won the Ivy League Championship and later captured the Petite Final at the NCAA Championships. Grundlingh had planned to compete in the Ironman 70.3 event in the Czech Republic in August.
Despite her achievements, Grundlingh’s mother said she shied from attention.
“She loved doing well, but she didn’t like the attention that came from it. She was very, very, very modest,” Debbie Grundlingh recalled.
Friends, teammates, and family remember her as humble, loyal, quietly determined, and deeply loved.
Grundlingh was born on July 14, 2004, in Johannesburg to Debbie and Francois Grundlingh.
Kerry Grundlingh ’27 pictured with her parents, Francois and Debbie Grundlingh, her brother James, and both her dogs.
Photo courtesy of Debbie Grundlingh
As a child, she was shy. When she was four, her teacher described her as a “‘look down’ girl,” her mother said.
Despite her quiet personality, Grundlingh threw herself into activities with intensity. She did gymnastics, ran cross-country, swam competitively, and played first-team netball. By middle school she was one of the top long-distance runners at her school.
“She always wanted to be the best at everything,” Debbie Grundlingh said. “She put so much effort into everything she did.”
In seventh grade, Grundlingh picked up an oar for the first time. Rowing quickly became her passion, and by the time she graduated from St. Mary’s, she was one of the top female rowers in her age group, representing the national team at multiple Junior World Championships.
“She showed some natural potential, but then she put in the extra work,” Francois Grundlingh told the ‘Prince.’
Like many things in her life, rowing was not just about the competition, but about how it anchored her in the moment.
“She loved putting her hand in the water and feeling the water between her fingers,” Debbie Grundlingh said. “That’s what she loved about being on a boat.”
During the pandemic, her Ivy League dreams took shape after she reached out to Ivy League coaches with her ergometer times.
Grundlingh had originally verbally committed to Yale, but Princeton open rowing Head Coach Lori Dauphiny refused to give up on her. Grundlingh’s final decision rested on her finally meeting the respective teams. She chose Princeton.
“The big difference for me and for Kerry was the sense of community that Princeton had over Yale,” Francois Grundlingh said. “Yale’s all business, and Princeton had a bit of heart. And Kerry was all heart.”
From the first week of practice, her teammates noticed how Grundlingh’s presence changed the standard around her.
“Freshman year, I could just tell that she was going to be fast on the water,” said Devonne Piccaver ’27. “I wanted to sit next to her at every workout, because I felt like she was pulling me along and bringing the standard up of everyone around her.”
Grundlingh was known for her consistency and strength. As a first year, she rowed in the 2V boat, but by sophomore year, she earned a spot in the 1V — the highest boat — and went on to win the Ivy League Championship.
“She would show rather than tell,” Piccaver said, speaking to how she watched the way Grundlingh performed on the water and thought, “that’s what I aspire to be like.”
“She was so consistent,” Rachel Mark ’27, another teammate, said. “Even if she was having a bad day, her performance never faltered. Sitting next to her in the boat, you felt steadier.”
While all business on the water, Grundlingh’s teammates also remember her silly quirks and sense of humor. She often wore distinctive colorful knee-high socks and old-fashioned visors. She biked everywhere, swore by the chicken at RoMa Dining Hall, and carried “The Office” on a USB drive so she could rewatch episodes whenever she wanted.
Photo courtesy of Jess Mabey ’27
A self-described cinephile, she often left reviews on Letterboxd.
“Reading her Letterboxd reviews were quite possibly the funniest thing ever,” Mabey said. “She watched ‘Babygirl’ and wrote a review on it … she said ‘I don’t even know why this film was made. It is possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever watched.’”
On a team fall break trip to Washington, D.C., Grundlingh organized and filmed a video as part of a boathouse Assassin’s game, turning the National Mall and Lincoln Memorial into a film set.
Kerry Grundlingh ’27 pictured with Ellie Smith ’27 (left) and Jess Mabey ’27 (right) in front of the Washington Monument.
Photo courtesy of Jess Mabey ’27
“[The video] was hilarious and had so much personality,” Mark said. “Everyone who was playing assassins thought it was the coolest thing ever. That was Kerry.”
Grundlingh enjoyed consuming and creating art. She drew, made movies, and was an avid fan of Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. Her mother said she wished Grundlingh could have seen Swift’s and Travis Kelce’s engagement.
For those closest to her, Kerry’s loyalty and kindness defined her friendships.
“She was the first person I met at school,” Joely Cherniss ’27 said. “We fully did everything together … she was very honest — never mean, but honest.”
“[She was] the most loyal and kind friend … and a very reliable person all around, someone you could always count on,” Mark added.
Her teammates recognized this blend of strength and kindness through a team tradition in which five dresses are passed down to sophomores. One dress, nicknamed the “Gentle Giant,” is given to the rower who displays both strength on the water and kindness off of it. In 2024, that dress went to Grundlingh.
This blend proved essential on race days, too. Before big regattas, the team met in the boathouse.
“She was almost always quiet … [but] her advice cut straight to the point,” Dauphiny shared. “She would say, ‘Well, just put your oar in the water and go … just get the blade in and embrace the load.’”
“In an intense and busy environment, Kerry really knew how to take a moment and just enjoy,” Ella Barry ’25 wrote to the ‘Prince.’
Though she was fast in the boat, she was always the last rower to leave the boathouse. Due to this, her teammates nicknamed her “Turtle Kerry.”
“She was like a turtle in the best way: fast and powerful in the water, steady and sure on land,” Dauphiny said during Grundlingh’s memorial in South Africa.
By the end of her sophomore year, Grundlingh was finding her footing outside the rowhouse. She settled on an economics major after exploring engineering, worked as a McGraw Center economics tutor, joined Princeton Pictures and Princeton in Hollywood, and participated in the Personal Librarian program.
Grundlingh and Katharine Kalap ’25 discussed Grundlingh’s plans for the future when Kalap visited Johannesburg over the summer. Their conversations included potential topics for her junior paper, possible career paths, and whether she wanted to pursue her career in the United States, United Kingdom, or South Africa.
While at Princeton, Grundlingh maintained close relationships with friends from home — a reflection of her “fierce loyalty,” according to her friend of eight years, Lynne Swingler. The two met at a rowing camp in 2017, and though they studied on different continents after high school, Swingler said they only grew closer after Grundlingh moved to the United States.
Kerry Grundlingh ’27 and Lynne Swingler
Photo courtesy of Debbie Grundlingh
For her 18th birthday, Swingler gave Grundlingh the book “Big Panda and Tiny Dragon” by James Norbury.
“She was always the big panda and I was the tiny dragon,” Swingler said. “From that book she would quote: ‘Which is more important? The big panda says the journey or the destination, and then the tiny dragon says the company.’ That was Kerry: she treasured the people closest to her.”
While at Princeton, Grundlingh called her mother nearly everyday, often during her morning coffee at Sakrid or smoothie stops at Playa Bowls.
For her family, Grundlingh’s absence will be felt during their vacations to the Olifants River Reserve, when listening to ’80s music, and on nights spent watching Kerry’s favorite animated movies or playing Bananagrams surrounded by her beloved dogs.
Grundlingh’s mother will miss their December holidays in Plettenberg Bay, where Grundlingh and her mother would swim far out and pretend to be dolphins, do handstands, and have competitions to see who could stay underwater longer.
“She was so happy,” Debbie Grundlingh said. “Swimming in the sea will never be the same again.”
At her funeral, Grundlingh’s mother described her as nothing short of a miracle.
“[Before Kerry] I miscarried, and it crushed me,” she said. “And then we finally conceived our Kerry Bear. I often told her that I miscarried because God had the perfect child planned for me, and that was her.”
“Everyone wants to have a Kerry in their life,” Piccavver said. “Everyone wants to be like Kerry because she just has such beautiful qualities. She was just perfect in every single way.”
Students gathered to remember Grundlingh on Sept. 9 in the Mathey common room. Close friends and teammates shared memories of Grundlingh, and attendees were invited to write cards that will be sent to Grundlingh’s family in the coming weeks.
Grundlingh is survived by her parents and her brother, James.
Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor, senior Sports writer, and education director for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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