Lives

Bob Parker, 10th Mountain vet, Vail pioneer

Bob Parker
Passing Date: June 29, 2017

Robert Ward Parker, a veteran of the10th Mountain Division who returned to Colorado to become an integral figure in the post-World War II ski industry, died June 29 in Grand Junction, Colo. He was 94. Much of his life was involved with skiing, from his childhood in New York and Wisconsin to...

Tom Corcoran passes: Olympian, Waterville Valley founder

Tom Corcoran
Passing Date: June 27, 2017

Tom Corcoran, who made his Waterville Valley resort in New Hampshire fertile ground in the 1970s for the future of World Cup alpine racing in America, freestyle competition, and Nastar, died June 27 in Charleston, SC, at age 85. The cause of death was cancer, complicated by pneumonia. Corcoran’s...

John Bower, Holmenkollen champ, US Nordic coach

John Bower
Passing Date: June 6, 2017

USST release (June 8, 2017) – Olympic skier John Bower, the first American to win the prestigious nordic combined King's Cup, as well as a formative coach and leader of the U.S. Nordic Ski Team, passed away June 6 in Park City. Bower, who was 76, played a pivotal role in the development of the Utah...

Hal Blittersdorf, ski resort illustrator

Harold Blittersdorf
Passing Date: June 1, 2017

Harold Edwin Blittersdorf, whose watercolor paintings of ski resorts graced the pages of SKI Magazine and of many resort brochures, passed away on June 1, 2017, at age 94. Born in Hammonton, New Jersey, he graduated from Avon-Grove High School in West Grove, Pennsylvania in 1940. He won an art...

Fashion executive

Sônia Bogner
Passing Date: May 3, 2017

Sônia Bogner, the Brazilian-born model-turned-designer who helped her husband Willy Bogner modernize the family ski-fashion business, died May 3, 2017, in Munich after a long illness. She was 66 years old.   Born in Rio de Janeiro as Sônia Ribeiro, she left Brazil after earning her high school...

Ski pioneer, 10th Mountain veteran

Wendy Cram
Passing Date: April 30, 2017

Vermont ski pioneer Wendell R. “Wendy” Cram died on April 30, 2017, at age 96 in Manchester Center, Vermont.    Born in 1920 in Bridgewater, Vermont, he was already an expert skier in 1934 when he was one of the first riders on the new rope tow at Gilbert’s Hill in Woodstock—the first rope tow in...

Product manager

Hervé Maneint
Passing Date: April 21, 2017

Hervé Maneint, ski and boot product manager at Scott Sports, died in a skiing accident above Chamonix, France, on April 21. He was 56. He was hit by a falling rock while skiing with two mountain guides, and died instantly. Maneint joined the company in 2000 and was responsible for all ski and ski...

Gary Black, Jr: Ski Racing CEO dies at 75

Gary Black Jr.
Passing Date: February 25, 2017

Gary Black, 75, died peacefully on February 25, at his home in Sun Valley. A native of Baltimore, Black attended the Calvert and Gilman schools, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He had a lifelong love for newspaper publishing, adventure and skiing. He combined those passions in...

Ski industry public-relations executive

Tony Furman
Passing Date: February 20, 2017

Ski-industry public relations executive Anthony “Tony” Furman died on February 20, 2017, after a short illness at the age of 83. Tony founded his sports marketing and public relations firm Anthony M. Furman, Inc. in New York City in 1966, growing the business and his national reputation as the “...

Bill Beck: Olympian, national downhill champion

Bill Beck
Passing Date: February 16, 2017

William (Bill) L. Beck of Middlebury, Vermont passed away peacefully on February 16, 2017 at the age of 87 following a brief Illness. He was born in Malden, Massachusetts on September 1, 1929, the son of the late William M.H. Beck, Jr. and Ruth Clark LeBaron Beck. Bill graduated from South...