George Macomber - Alpine champ, EASA president, resort developer

George Macomber, national champion in downhill and combined in 1949, died December 13 at age 88.

Raised in Massachusetts, Macomber raced for MIT, and was rarely off the podium. A slalom specialist, he nonetheless won the U.S. national downhill and combined championships in 1949. He was named to the U.S. Ski Team for the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, and for the 1950 FIS championships. Injuries kept him from competing in both Olympiads.

Macomber continued racing and won the Veterans alpine combined title in 1962. Meanwhile, he helped to found the Eastern Amateur Ski Association and serving a two-year term as its president, and was vice president of the National Ski Association in 1954 and ’55. In the early ‘90s he served as a trustee of the U.S. Ski Educational Foundation.

In 1955, with Brooks Dodge, Macomber began planning to install lifts at Wildcat Mountain opposite Mount Washington, New Hampshire, and site of ski trails cut during the Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Supervising construction and operation, Macomber opened the lifts for the 1957-58 season. The area hosted the Eastern championships in 1959 and the National championships in 1961. Macomber later helped to build lifts for municipal ski hills in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire and Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Macomber was inducted into the National  Ski Hall of Fame in 1973. He is survived by Andy, his wife of 62 years; children John, Grace Bird and Jory; and grandchildren Ian, Eric, Sam, Clark and Anna Macomber and Derek, Meredith and Elena Bird.