"I went page by page in the dictionary. It took quite a long time. I'd always do a little more and tell myself that I didn't have to finish the whole thing. Eventually I was far enough along that I could get to the end," said Prince, a 54-year-old software engineer.
Prince first learned of the senior spelling bee while surfing the Web one day last summer. Growing up in Atlanta he had never participated in spelling bees as a child, and the chance to finally be able to be in one sparked his interest. "I just looked at it and thought, 'You know, I could do that,'" he said.
The National Senior Spelling Bee, which is open to anyone 50 years old or older, except for previous winners, is sponsored by the AARP and was started 12 years ago by the organization's Wyoming chapter. AARP Wyoming director Rita Inoway said that the chapter "liked the idea of being sharp, and they thought a bee was a good way to do that."
According to Joanne Bowlby, the organization's associate director for communications, only three states -- Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- hold a state senior bee.
Over the course of the nine months leading up to the bee, Prince submerged himself in 17,000 words, which he recorded onto 23 audiotapes. He stopped reading books, going to the movies, listening to the radio and attending his guitar lessons in order to make more time for studying. He would listen to his tapes for an hour or two each day for six months while commuting to and from work and exercising.
"I had my eye on the calendar all the time. I tried to finish with three months to spare so I could review," he said.
Prince even wrote himself a computer program that gave him the words in random order and kept track of the ones he missed so he could go back and pay particular attention to them. This method of studying words generated in an ad hoc fashion was especially useful because it eliminated the predictability that comes with learning words alphabetically.
"He was unusual. I don't think we've ever had a contestant like Mr. Prince who claimed to memorize the dictionary," said Inoway. "He was very intent on really knowing the words well. I think a lot of other people came on a much more casual basis."
Prince went into the bee brimming with confidence: "I felt like I was really, really well prepared so I basically thought that maybe someone else could be as well prepared as me, but probably not." He also practiced being very cautious and deliberate about speaking; he said it was important to go slowly and think carefully about each syllable since the combination of being watched by an audience and the risk of misspeaking can cause spellers to flub their words.
This year, the bee drew 29 participants ranging in age from 52 to 86. The participants hailed from 15 states, from California to Pennsylvania, from Texas to Alaska.
In the morning, an elimination round was held where contestants were given 100 words to spell on paper in four rounds of 25 words. Usually, the top 15 spellers get to advance to the final oral rounds in the afternoon, but this year 16 made the cut due to a tie. During the oral portion, contestants can miss three words before being knocked out of the competition. Prince missed none.
Some of the words that pushed Prince's competitors to the sidelines were zucchetto (an ecclesiastic's skull-cap), komatik (an Eskimo dogsled), hamantaschen (a Yiddish pastry) and ayurveda (a form of traditional medicine practiced on the Indian subcontinent).
Prince remained undaunted throughout the 20 rounds of spelling.
"I knew all the words they asked me and the words they asked everyone else, except for souk," which was asked of another contestant. The trouble was that souk -- a marketplace found in Muslim countries -- has a second spelling, suq. Since the bee is not supposed to ask contestants to spell words with multiple spellings, Prince had ignored all such words when studying.
He added, "I didn't really think any of [the words] were all that hard. I knew there were tricky words lurking around, but the ones I got were pretty straightforward."
The longest word Prince had to spell was triskaidekaphobia, meaning an abnormal fear of the number 13.
"The commonality between the top three finishers is that they all have curious minds. They are people who just want to learn different things and try different things," said Bowlby.
Prince originally went to school in pursuit of musicology, a field that required him to learn some Romance languages, as well as Medieval Latin. He later switched to computer science.
Due to Prince's diverse background of knowledge, Inoway considered him to be among the finalists who "were familiar with a lot of the words because they had been involved in so many occupations." She said that contestants who travel, enjoy certain hobbies and are educated in more than one discipline often have a leg up on the competition because they are exposed to a more extensive vocabulary.
When asked if he has any new challenges lined up for the near future, Prince said, "I don't have anything else in the wings right now." For the time being, the spelling-bee champ plans on reading books about odd vocabulary and the roots of words -- and getting back into guitar.
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