Arnold Midgley - Canadian National Champion, Canadian Ski Hall of Fame Founder

Arnold Midgley, national champion and founder and member of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame, died peacefully on September 20. He was 88.

Midgley first took up ski racing in 1948 with the Ottawa Ski Club, where he competed within the Gatineau zone of the Canadian Ski Association. In the 1950s, he became a champion in multiple disciplines with the Ontario and Quebec Athletic Association. While living in England in the late 1950s, Midgley joined the British Universities Ski Club team. At the 1958 Commonwealth Winter Games at St. Moritz, Midgley won four races, including the Roberts of Kandahar downhill and slalom. He also competed at the United States Championships in Alta, Utah, and at the Roch Cup in Aspen, Colorado, and was selected as an alternate member of the Canadian national Alpine team for the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympic Games.

When the team returned from the Games, Midgley won the slalom and combined titles at the Canadian National Championships. He also won the national championships combined again in 1962.

He went on to serve as a coach, judge and technical delegate for the Canadian Ski Association and International Ski Federation and was instrumental in bringing international ski competition to Canada. In addition, he used his engineering skills to design major snowmaking systems around the world.

Midgley was a founder and first chairman of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame and Museum and remained actively involved in the organization. During his second stint as chairman, from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, he established the museum’s first full-time curator and ushered the organization into the digital age. He was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.