Barry Hollister - Promoter, entrepreneur, publisher

Joseph “Barry” Hollister, founder of the Ski America promotion company, passed away on November 26 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at the age of 80.

In the 1960s, Hollister taught skiing at a variety of resorts, including Bousquet, Mt. Tremblant, Heavenly Valley and Palisades Tahoe (Squaw Valley). While attending  San Francisco State University he produced local rock concerts. Graduating in 1965, he returned to Pittsfield in 1966 he founded Ski America to distribute ski-resort promotional brochures in ski shops. In 1968 he managed the local Pittsfield band The Quarry, which hit it big when hired as the house band played for the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

The band split up in 1970 and Hollister expanded the brochure-distribution business nationally, and published Ski America magazine. Ski America also organized promotional events, such as a halftime freestyle demonstration during a New England Patriots game in the 1970s. Hollister went on to found Berkshire Harmony, which supported community-based farms and agriculture.