The world title victory came in Scotland in 1965 after Canadian teams had won all of the previous World Championships since the first in 1959.

According to Sports Illustrated, when Somerville returned from Scotland with the World Championships trophy and attended a press conference in New York, the first question was: "What’s curling?"

Somerville, born in Superior, Wisconsin, skipped the United States to a second world title in 1974.

Ten years later, he became the first person inducted into the U.S. Curling Hall of Fame.

He also skipped the first US team to compete at an Olympics in the modern era when curling returned to the Games as a demonstration sport in 1988 for the first time in 56 years.

The Americans finished fourth.

At the Albertville 1992 Games, Somerville was joined on the U.S. men's team by son Tim, brother-in-law Bill Strum and Strum's son, Mike.

The team finished third in what was curling's final Olympics as a demonstration sport.

Curling became a medal sport at the Nagano 1998 Games, and Somerville coached the United States men at Salt Lake City 2002.

John Shuster, who in 2018 skipped the first U.S. curling team to win an Olympic title, has described Somerville as a mentor.

Two-time U.S. Olympian Chris Plys described Somerville on social media as "an American curling icon", adding: "They don’t make them much better than Bud.

"I don’t think I ever heard a person say one thing about the man that wasn’t something you’d be proud of."