Skiing Heritage News

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Julie Fiorini, 85

Co-founded Fiorini Ski School in 1947,
and taught thousands of kids to ski in Northwest.

Julie Fiorini, the Head Mama who taught generations of Seattle kids to ski at her Snoqualmie-based ski school, died Oct. 15 at a Vashon Island hospice. She was 85, and had been ill with Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Fiorini, with her then-husband Buzz Fiorini, founded the Fiorini Ski School in 1947, and she ran it until retiring in 1990, when she passed management on to her daughter Georgianne. The ski school taught thousands of Seattle- and Tacoma-area kids to ski.

The couple opened Fiorini Sports, a ski shop near the University of Washington campus, in 1962.

Julie Oliver was born on Aug. 25, 1921 in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., and as a teenager became a popular local jazz singer. At 19 she met Sebastian “Buzz” Fiorini, and they were married three years later. They settled in Seattle, where Buzz taught skiing and sold gear to his students at Osborn & Ulland. Julie loved teaching kids to ski and it became her lifelong passion. Over a 45-year career she may have been directly responsible for more student starts than any other ski instructor on the planet. Snoqualmie named a beginner lift for her.

Julie and Buzz divorced in 1987.

She is survived by her daughter Georgianne Fiorini, her son Jeff and his wife Sally; her brother Albert Oliver, and a granddaughter.

JOURNAL OF ISHA, THE INTERNATIONAL SKIING HISTORY ASSOCIATION
The International Skiing History Association is a not-for-profit corporation, whose mission is to preserve and advance the knowledge of ski history and to increase public awareness of the sport's heritage.

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