Bryon Brown - Vail racing pioneer

Byron Brown, a mainstay of Vail’s ski racing community, died September 13 at age 86.

A Missouri native, Brown was a high school football player and diver and attended Colorado A&M (now CSU) in Fort Collins. After a hitch in the Air Force he worked in Denver and joined the National Ski Patrol at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, where he met his wife Vi and patroller Pete Seibert.

In 1964, Byron and Vi moved to Vail, where Byron did a wide variety of jobs on the mountain, include ski patrolling and teaching. The couple had three children, Mike, Todd and Cindy. Mike Brown raced downhill and Super G on the World Cup circuit from 1983 to 1989.

Byron launched a real estate development business, and the couple collaborated to found Ski Club Vail and the town’s Buddy Werner race league. In 1983, with John Horan-Kates, Byron was instrumental in bringing World Cup racing and the FIS World Alpine Championships to Vail. —S.M.