Lives

Sport Obermeyer executive, 40-year sales representative

Gary Speckmann
Passing Date: March 29, 2020

Gary Speckmann Sport Obermeyer executive, 40-year sales representative   Gary Speckmann passed away March 29 in his home in Boulder, Colorado. He was 86.   Gary was born in Fremont, Nebraska. The family moved to La Junta, Colorado, where Gary spent his formative years and he graduated from high...

Ski area architect, ISHA founding director

Jimmie Ray Nunn
Passing Date: March 10, 2020

Jimmie Ray Nunn, a ski area designer and a founding director of the International Skiing History Association, passed away in Phoenix on March 10, 2020. He was 92. Nunn grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, and began skiing at age six, four years before the area got its first rope tow. After World War II...

Two-time nordic Olympian and collegiate star

Mack Miller
Passing Date: February 16, 2020

Andrew Markley “Mack” Miller, the most prominent American cross-country skier of the 1950s, died February 16. He was 88. Miller was a two-time Olympian who competed in the Winter Games in 1956 at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy (racing in the 15k and 4x10 relay events) and in 1960 at Squaw Valley,...

Two-time Nordic Olympian and collegiate star

Mack Miller
Passing Date: February 16, 2020

Andrew Markley “Mack” Miller, the most prominent American cross-country skier of the 1950s, died February 16. He was 88.   Mack was a two-time Olympian who competed in the Winter Games in 1956 at Cortina D’Ampezzo (racing in the 15k and 4x10 relay events) and in 1960 at Squaw Valley (15k and 30k)....

Mammoth Mountain founder, coach

Dave McCoy
Passing Date: February 8, 2020

Dave McCoy, founder of Mammoth Mountain and coach to a generation of American ski racers, died February 9 at age 104. Born in El Segundo, California, McCoy began traveling to the eastern Sierra at age 13. While living with his grandparents in Washington State, he made a pair of skis in a high...

NASTAR founder, ISHA chair, lifelong ski journalist

John Fry
Passing Date: January 24, 2020

John Fry, the dean of North American ski journalists, died suddenly but peacefully on January 24, two days after celebrating his 90th birthday Fry was in apparent good health. According to the local medical examiner, he suffered a heart attack while floating quietly in shallow water off a beach on...

Canadian champion skier

Rhona Wurtele Gillis
Passing Date: January 17, 2020

Rhona Wurtele Gillis died January 17, 2020, in Montreal, less than a week before her 98th birthday. She is survived by her twin sister, Rhoda Wurtele Eaves. The Wurtele twins, the youngest of five children, were born in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. As kids, the twins were natural...

Innovative manufacturer

Dave Goode
Passing Date: January 15, 2020

The founder and president of Goode Ski Technologies, Dave Goode was killed January 15 when his twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed while on approach to the Ogden, Utah airport. He was 64. A gifted athlete, Dave was an accomplished skier and water skier. He graduated from Andover High School in...

10th Mountain Division hero, ski illustrator

Jacques Parker
Passing Date: December 22, 2019

Jacques Parker, the internationally celebrated ski illustrator and a veteran of the US 10th Mountain Division, who scaled Italy’s Riva Ridge to help capture enemy positions in one of America’s most daring WWII battle engagements, died on December 22, 2019 at the age of 98.  He had recently...

Ski historian, collector and ISHA board member

Luzi Hitz
Passing Date: November 28, 2019

Luzi Hitz, a noted Swiss ski historian, ski collector, indefatigable researcher and writer and ISHA director, died November 28, 2019 in Corseaux, Switzerland. He was 89. A passionate ski collector and historian, Hitz dedicated much of his life to celebrating and preserving the sport’s rich history...