JFK Choate prep school friend who was invited to the Kennedy home on several occasions on school holidays.
Commented to JFK biographer on the competitiveness that Joe Kennedy drilled into his children, especially his sons.
On one occasion, Chase was asked by JFK to crew for him in a sailing race – the duo got beaten by a wide margin. Chase recalled the following scene:
“Mr. K. really did preach that winning was everything. Several times, Jack asked me to crew for him when he could not find anyone else. Once we lost badly and caught a half-hour lecture from the old man on our return to shore. He said he has watched the race and that he was disgusted with both of us. There was no sense, he claimed, in going into a race unless you did your damnedest to win, an endeavor at which we had failed miserably. He was really angry at us.”
JFK Reckless Youth, Hamilton, p. 115-6