Lives

Winter Park Exec, Racer and Racing Official

Thor B. Groswold
Passing Date: February 22, 2018

Thor B. Groswold, 89, died February 22 at Mercy Regional Hospital in Durango, Colorado. The son of Denver ski manufacturer Thor C. Groswold and Bernice Brandt, he grew up racing and jumping and working in his father’s ski factory. Beginning in 1947, Thor raced four-way (slalom, downhill, cross...

Creator of Hexcel honeycomb skis

Hub Zemke
Passing Date: February 17, 2018

Hubert A. Zemke, Jr, age 75, inventor of the aluminum honeycomb ski, died February 17, 2018 after a long struggle with cancer. Zemke was a an Air Force brat, son of a fighter wing commander. He learned to ski at Garmisch, and during a determined but undistinguished career as a racer and coach, made...

Public relations executive

Jane Fitzpatrick Pitman
Passing Date: February 17, 2018

Jane Fitzpatrick Pitman, a ski-industry public relations executive, passed away on February 17 at Salem Hospital in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She was 92.  Jane attended Boston’s Academie Moderne and the Stratford School of Business. After a first marriage to John Thuet, she married Theodore Pitman...

POWDR Corp. and Snowbird Owner

Ian Cumming
Passing Date: February 2, 2018

Ian Cumming, a one-time Wall Street financier and more recently an influential figure in the ski resort industry, died February 2, 2018 at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was 77. As much behind the public scene as his enterprises are in front of it, Cumming was affiliated with POWDR Corp.,...

Snowbird Founder

Ted Johnson
Passing Date: January 29, 2018

Ted Johnson, the one-time California beachcomber who founded Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort that elevated Utah’s winter sports image to world-class status, died January 29, 2018, in Santa Barbara, California. According to his son, Peter, Ted succumbed to injuries suffered when an allegedly drunk...

Legendary film maker

Warren Miller
Passing Date: January 24, 2018

Warren’s movies were an annual event where you met old buddies that you hadn’t seen since the last ski season. Having spent the previous winter shooting action in mountains from New Zealand to New Hampshire, he now dragged his weary body over from a nearby Howard Johnson Inn to present the...

Olympian, Wildcat founder, heliski pioneer

Brooks Dodge
Passing Date: January 17, 2018

Wildcat co-founder Joseph Brooks Dodge Jr., 88, passed away on January 17. The son of legendary Appalachian Mountain Club huts manager Joe Dodge, Brooks was born in Conway, New Hampshire on December 30, 1929. As a teenager, Brooks worked for the AMC on Mt. Washington and became an accomplished...

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...