Former Olympic Distance Runner Truex Dies

Max Truex, former Olympic and USC distance runner, died Sunday in Milton, Mass. He was 55.

Truex had suffered in recent years from Parkinson’s disease. However, the official cause of death was not immediately disclosed, according to his wife, Catherine.

In the 1960 Olympic Games at Rome, Truex became the first American to break 29 minutes in the 10,000 meters when he was timed in 28:50.2 while finishing sixth. At the time, it was the best placing by an American in an event dominated by Europeans.

His disease was diagnosed in 1979, and his condition had deteriorated steadily. He underwent a rare operation in China in 1989 in which brain tissue from aborted fetuses was put in his brain to produce the chemical dopamine, inadequately produced in Parkinson’s patients.

His friends marveled at the apparent improvement of his physical condition when he made a surprise showing at a USC track and field banquet a year ago.

“The last two years were very good. Up until then, it initially wasn’t so terrible, but then progressively as the years went by he would get worse and worse,” his wife said.

At the worst stage of the disease, Truex had difficulty talking and once he began walking, he couldn’t always stop.

Truex attended high school in Warsaw, Ind., where, his coach, Fred Olds, recalled recently that Truex had an unquenchable desire to run. Truex went to USC after setting a national high school mile record of 4 minutes 20.4 seconds.

While competing at USC from 1956-58, Truex won the NCAA cross-country championship and set the American 5,000-meter record, which he would lower three more times with a best of 14:03.6 while running as a lieutenant in the Air Force in 1960.

Truex was the national AAU champion in the 10,000 meters in 1956 and 1959. He also competed in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

As his illness worsened, Truex, a real estate lawyer for Los Angeles County, couldn’t be heard by jurors. He tried his last case in 1981 and retired a year later.

The Truexes moved to Milton in 1988. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children, Gene, 16, John 14, and Mindy, 11.

According to his wishes, he will be cremated and his ashes scattered over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, an area where he once trained.