• He was a gifted athlete but a heart ailment kept him from playing most sports. As a result, he turned to curling.
• He first reached the U.S. finals in 1962, skipping a rink that included his father, Ray, at second, and his brother-in-law Bill Strum at lead. The team finished third.
• In the middle of the 1965 national final against a team from Illinois, Somerville’s pants split up the front, and he was forced to patch them together with tape and a safety pin. Undaunted, he finished out the game, winning his first national title.
• The team became the first American rink—and first non-Canadian—to win the world championship when it captured the Scotch Cup in 1965. After the victory, the team received a telegram of congratulations from President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• He won a second world championship in 1974.
• Somerville’s youngest son, John, died of cystic fibrosis at age 17, and Somerville has raised thousands and thousands of dollars for the research into the disease.
• In 1992, Somerville, at the age of 55, represented the United States at curling’s demonstration at the Olympic Games, becoming that country’s oldest Olympian. He skipped the rink to a bronze medal. He also skipped the team at the 1988 Games.
• When the U.S. Curling Hall of Fame was started in 1984, Somerville was the first inductee.
• His son Tim won three U.S. Championships and represented the United States in the 2002 Olympics.