Lives

Quebec resort visionary

Louis Dufour
Passing Date: February 19, 2022

Quebec ski industry leader Louis Dufour died February 19, 2022. He was 81. A former member of the Canadian Ski Team, in 1972 Dufour joined the marketing department at Saint-Saveur resort. In1978, with the acquisition of Jay Peak, Vermont, he worked with Jacques Hébert to launch Mont Saint-Sauveur...

Retailer, diversity activist

Yosh Nakagawa
Passing Date: January 29, 2022

Yoshitada Nakagawa, retired president/CEO of Seattle’s Osborn & Ulland Sporting Goods chain and a lifelong activist for diversity in sports, passed away peacefully at age 89 on January 29, following a third bout of cancer. Yosh was born to immigrant parents in Seattle’s multi-ethnic Central...

Doppelmayr Engineer, Lift Innovator

John West
Passing Date: December 23, 2021

John West, 82, passed away peacefully at his home in Sandy, Oregon, December 23, 2021. West learned to ski at Red Devil ski area in Government Camp, Oregon, owned by his parents. He attended the University of Wyoming on a full ski racing scholarship, then studied engineering at the Oregon Technical...

Coach, author, mentor

Ron LeMaster
Passing Date: November 30, 2021

Ultimate Skiing, by Ron LeMaster Ron LeMaster, the widely-respected analyst of ski technique, was killed November 30 in a collision with a snowboarder. He was 72 years old. The accident took place on Windmill, an intermediate run at Eldora, near LeMaster’s home in Boulder, Colorado. When patrollers...

Promoter, entrepreneur, publisher

Barry Hollister
Passing Date: November 26, 2021

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)....

Ski school founder, Northwest Ski Hall of Famer

John Hansen
Passing Date: November 21, 2021

John Hansen, ski school founder at Stevens Pass, Washington, and longtime instructor, died on November 21, 2021. He was 95. Born in Minneapolis in 1926, Hansen moved to Seattle with his family in 1939 and graduated from the University of Washington in 1949. The following year he started a 36-year...

Fleece pioneer, labor-management hero

Aaron Feuerstein
Passing Date: November 4, 2021

Aaron Feuerstein, who helped to develop polyester fleece as a foundation of activewear, and won national praise after he refused to lay off employees after a devasting fire at his Malden Mills plant in 1995, died November 4 in Boston of pneumonia. He was 95. Feuerstein joined Malden Mills after...

Longtime Skiing publisher

Harry Kaiser
Passing Date: October 23, 2021

Harry Kaiser, influential ski-industry publisher, died October 23, at the age of 91. Born in 1930 on Long Island, Kaiser started skiing at 14, which turned into a lifelong passion and profession. After graduating from Fordham University in 1953, he served two years in the Army. In 1956 he got his...

Founder of Mt. Hood Meadows

Franklin Drake
Passing Date: September 13, 2021

Franklin Drake, the founder of Mt. Hood Meadows, Oregon, and a prominent Portland builder, died September 13. He was 93. Drake graduated from the University of Michigan in 1950 and returned to Portland to join his brothers to run the Donald M. Drake Co., their father’s construction company. In 1966...

MIT professor of aeronautics, ski safety pioneer

Larry Young
Passing Date: August 4, 2021

Laurence R. Young, MIT’s Apollo Program Professor Emeritus of Astronautics and an innovator in skier safety research, died after a long struggle with cancer, on August 4, 2021. He was 85. Born in Riverdale, New York, Young attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1952. He graduated...