John Decker

John Decker has been involved with the sport of rugby since 1965 – 1955. He first took the field with the Washington RFC in 1965. He remained with Washington until 1969 when he went north and played for another Eastern powerhouse, the Old Blue RFC in New York City. He spent two years with Old Blue before rejoining Washington. Decker captained the Washington side on the pitch and later served as President of the club. While with Washington, he played for the Potomac Rugby Union Select Side and while at Old Blue, played for the Metropolitan New York Union Select Side.

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In 1976, Decker headed west, joining the Boulder Rugby Club. He ended his playing career with Old Blue, retiring from the playing field in 1979 following Old Blue’s run for the 1979 National Championship at USA Rugby’s inaugural Final Four held in Kansas City.

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Decker has been involved with the USRF since 1989. He’s been a Director since 1992 and also served as Chairman of the Board from 1999-2004. In July 2019, Decker was inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame. Decker retired from IBM in 2013 after 49 years. With degrees in Physics (BS, Siena) and Space Physics (MS, Catholic Univ.) his IBM career began in 1965 on NASA Programs at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

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After NASA’s moon landing in 1969 and with an MBA (Columbia Univ.) he went on to hold senior technical and business management positions at various IBM Development and HQ locations around the world. He managed IBM Japan’s Tokyo development laboratory; and, at retirement was the Director of Business Development at Lexmark International, an IBM spinoff. He has been married to Francesca since 1979 and they have two grown children and four young grandchildren. Mr. Decker spends his free time outdoors – golfing, skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and fly-fishing – and enjoys a good bottle of wine.

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