Joy Piles Lucas - Joy Lucas, Northwest ski instructor

Joy Piles “Lucky” Lucas, 94, died inSpokane,Wash., in February, 2011. Raised by Forest Service parents at the Barlow Pass Ranger Station, she began skiing in 1938 and soon married Jim Lucas. Beginning in 1940, the couple ran the Deer Park Ski Lodge and ski school in the Olympic Range. In 1941, Joy became the first woman certified as a ski instructor in thePacific Northwest.

After World War II, Jim and Joy managed Milwaukee Ski Bowl (now Hyak) and taught at Snoqualmie for 27 years. In all, Joy taught for 53 years, until turning 75. Along the way she helped to found the Pacific Northwest Ski Instructors Association and served on its board for three decades.

Joy was inducted to the Northwest Ski Hall of fame in 1992, and in 1998, she received ISHA’s Skade Award for her book It Started in the Mountains, a history of skiing and ski instruction in the Northwest. In 2006, she authored Ancient Skiers of the Pacific Northwest, a history of skiing onMt.Rainier before World War II.