Lives

Cross country racer, 10th Mountain veteran

Chummy Broomhall
Passing Date: December 30, 2017

Wendall “Chummy” Broomhall, a mainstay of the American cross country ski racing community, died December 30, 2017, at age 98. Raised in a large family in Mexico, Maine, he skied in cross country races while attending Stevens High School. With his older brother Charles “Slim” Broomhall, he was named...

Ski area pioneer and Wolf Creek Pass owner

Kingsbury Pitcher
Passing Date: December 29, 2017

Kingsbury Pitcher, longtime owner of Colorado’s Wolf Creek Pass ski area, died in his sleep on December 29, 2017, at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 98. “Pitch” grew up in Pasadena, California, and spent his summers in Silverton, Colorado, where his grandfather Otto Mears had pioneered the...

U.S. Ski & Snowboard and FIS official

Bruce Crane
Passing Date: December 9, 2017

National and international ski-racing official Bruce Crane died of cancer on December 9 at his home in Park City, Utah. He was 71. Born in 1947 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Crane earned his bachelor’s degree from Williams College in Massachusetts. After college, he served as an educator and coach...

Dartmouth College ski historian

Stephen Waterhouse
Passing Date: December 8, 2017

Stephen “Steve” Waterhouse died in New York City on December 8, after a brief battle with brain cancer. He was 74. Born in Sanford, Maine, Waterhouse was a lifelong skier. After attending Dartmouth (Class of 1965, MBA 1967), he held executive positions at Procter & Gamble, Avon, Revlon and the...

Ski Club of Great Britain editor and historian

Elisabeth Hussey
Passing Date: December 2, 2017

Elisabeth Hussey, who succeeded Sir Arnold Lunn as editor of Ski Survey, the magazine of the Ski Club of Great Britain, died December 2, 2017, at age 88.  From 1984 to 2008, Hussey was a member of the International Ski Federation (FIS) Sub-Committee for Alpine Citizen Racers. From 1992 she served...

Influential SIA attorney

Shaun Corette
Passing Date: December 2, 2017

John “Shaun” Corette III, a Montana cowboy who became a leading attorney in Washington, DC, died December 2 at age 81. Among his many clients was Snowsports Industries America (SIA), the nonprofit national trade association for the winter sports and resort industry.  Corette started working with...

Two-time Olympic jumper and U.S. Hall of Famer

Gene Kotlarek
Passing Date: November 9, 2017

Two-time Olympic ski jumper and U.S. Hall of Famer Eugene “Gene” Kotlarek died November 9, 2017, in his hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Kotlarek, who was a jumping legend in the 1960s, was 77. Born in 1940, Kotlarek grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, where he began skiing at the age of five...

10th Mountain vet, legendary climber

Fred Beckey
Passing Date: October 30, 2017

Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey, the 10th Mountain Division veteran who, over a 70-year climbing career put up more first ascents than any other North American, died October 30 in Seattle. He was 94 years old. Beckey was born in Düsseldorf, Germany and the family moved to Seattle in 1925. With his...

Killington’s original mountain man

Royal Biathrow
Passing Date: October 25, 2017

Royal Biathrow, Killington Resort’s first employee, died October 25 at age 86. Born and raised in Bridgewater, Vermont, Royal became a logger during high school and served in the Korean War. He married Norma Towne in 1954 and went to work for her father’s construction business, gaining the...

Collegiate four-way racer and ski-manufacturer sales rep

Jim Bombard
Passing Date: October 20, 2017

Collegiate ski racer and sales rep James W. Bombard, 77, died on October 20, 2017, in Fitchfield, Massachusetts of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Bombard grew up in Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. He earned his undergraduate degree from Paul Smith’s College in upstate New...