Who We Are

History

The International Skiing History Association (ISHA) is a 501-( C )-3 educational non-profit corporation.

ISHA was founded in 1991 by the late Mason Beekley, who amassed perhaps the world’s largest private collection of ski books and art. The collection opened to the public for the first time in December, 2003 in a newly-created museum in Mammoth Lakes, California.

The founding of ISHA and the idea for SKIING HERITAGE came from Mason Beekley’s belief that, by the 1980’s, the need for a rational and complete record of American skiing history had reached the tipping point.

In the 1990-91 time frame, Mason Beekley gathered a number of individuals who he thought would share his vision for a skiing history organization assembled a group of “founders.” By November 1, 1990 he had convinced 36 prestigious prospects to become ISHA Founders in support of ISHA’s purpose, “to encourage and promote sharing, organizing, preserving, archiving, collecting and disseminating every aspect of the history of skiing.”

A May, 1991 meeting of Founders in Hanover, New Hampshire led to the founders’ list growing to 102 individuals. This Founders meeting followed the Winter 1991 issuance of the Snow News Newsletter as “The Official Journal of the International Skiing History Association.”

The first Skiing Heritage Week was held in 1992. The name Snow News was replaced by SKIING HERITAGE in 1993 and Morten Lund was hired as editor. The fall, 1994 issue of the journal carried the first full-length article on Gretchen Fraser. Over the years the SKIING HERITAGE has expanded to 48 pages. Full color is employed, and historical and entertaining articles have filled many of the holes in the documented record of skiing history.

This web site was launched in 2001 to enable ISHA to deliver on its mission to a worldwide Internet audience. The web site is #1 on Google Internet searches for ski history topics, and is visited by more than 16,000 unique visitors per month.

Today, SKIING HERITAGE goes out to more than 2,700 subscribers, including individuals who are part of corporate sponsorship programs, who are museum members (National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum, Alf Engen Ski Museum at Olympic Park in Park City, and the Canadian Ski Museum), and who are individuals subscribers.

Click here for a more complete history of ISHA.

Leadership

Board of Directors

John Fry – President - Editor SKI Magazine, 1964-80, founding editor Snow Country Magazine, elected to National Ski Hall of Fame, 1995, numerous international ski writing awards
Deb McClenahan – Vice President - Ski marketing and sales, including East West Marketing in Vail, Ski the High Sierra and Kirkwood
Connie Nelson – Vice President - Executive Director Alf Engen Ski Museum Foundation, Utah Olympic management team, 2002
Bob Orbacz – Treasurer - Director of Finance and Operations, Snowsports Industries America; past president, Monark Sporting Goods
Einar Sunde – Secretary - Practicing attorney, collector and student of ski books, working on annotated bibliography covering related works in various languages prior to 1960
Richard Allen - Owner of Vintage Ski World, LCC, providing sales of vintage ski memorabilia, ski equipment, and historic images
Arthur Currier - Former Salomon executive
Dick Cutler -  Former representative for Skiing Magazine.
Bob Danzeisen – Veteran ski shop owner
Jerry Groswold – President Winter Part Resort, 1975-97, elected to National Ski Hall of Fame in 1986, Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 1987, recipient of NSAA Lifetime Achievement Award
Wini Jones - Former Roffe executive
Luzi Hitz - European Director
Jake Hoeschler – Former ski racer, attorney, marketing and insurance executive
David Ingemie  - President of Snowsports Industries Association since 1981
John McMurtry – Former alpine director, U.S. Ski Team; elected to Colorado Ski Hall of Fame, 1995
Rick Moulton - Filmmaker. Winner, Banff Mountain Film Festival (Legends of American Skiing), productions for NSAA, SIA, Orton Foundation, and NBC
Allison Pobrislo - Founder of Prance Corp., director of Andrea Meade Lawrence documentary for PBS
Charles Sanders - Music industry attorney and award-winning author of The Boys of Winter: Life and Death in the U.S. Ski Troops During the Second World War
Joyce Thurmer - administers the Rigo Thurmer Endowment Fund
Dan Wardell - Married to Sayre Beekley Wardell; with Sayre and the other Beekley sisters, has provided substantial financial support to ISHA and represented the “spirit of Mason Beekley” as ISHA has grown and evolved

SKIING HERITAGE Editor

Kathleen James was on the staff of Snow Country Magazine.

SKIING HERITAGE Editorial Board

The ISHA Editorial Board works closely with the SKIING HERITAGE Editor to ensure that articles in SKIING HERITAGE meet high standards for accuracy and editorial quality. Members of this important peer review group are: John Fry; Allen H. Adler; John Henry Auran; Jeff Leich; Morten Lund (ISHA Founding Editor); Hank McKee; Seth Masia (ISHA Webmaster); Doug Pfeiffer; and Dinah Witchel.

SkiingHistory.org Editor and Webmaster

Seth Masia was technical editor of SKI Magazine from 1974 to 1994, and launched SkiNet in 1995. He has worked as product manager at K2 Corp. and was a website producer at Microsoft Corp. He teaches skiing at Vail, and is editor of Solar Today and director of communications at the American Solar Energy Society.

Presidential Circle

International alpine ski racing is an important, defining element of skiing history. ISHA is pleased to have seven athletes with an incredible record of racing accomplishments as members of ISHA’s Presidential Circle. These seven individuals support ISHA and its mission to preserve skiing history and increase awareness of the sport’s heritage.

Presidential Circle members are: Bob Beattie; Stein Eriksen; Billy Kidd; Jean-Claude Killy; Bode Miller; Warren Miller; Penny Pitou; and Nancy Greene Raine.

Directors Emeritus

ISHA’s volunteer board of directors has included a few individuals whose substantial contributions over the years has resulted in being awarded “Emeritus Status.” Current directors emeritus are John Fry, Peter Lunn, Glenn Parkinson, and Doug Pfeiffer

ISHA Legacy Partners

Since Mason Beekley and others founded ISHA in 1989, many individuals have made personal and financial contributions to the organization: founders; ISHA board members; editorial board; advisory board; lifetime members and significant donors; ISHA annual awardees; and Heritage Week repeat attendees. Indeed, a few individuals have a very significant history with ISHA that is defined by most, if not all, of these roles. Further, it is the combination of these individual and their significant and highly personal relationships with ISHA that define the true spirit and passion that are what makes ISHA such an important part of all of our lives.

Along with ISHA Directors Emeritus and the Presidential Circle, Legacy Partner is an honor reserved for individuals whose breadth and depth of commitment to and involvement with ISHA is outstanding.

Current Legacy Partners are Gretchen Besser, PhD; Dr. Donn R. Mosser, and Gene Rose.