Lives

President and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association

James (Jimmie) Spencer
Passing Date: July 16, 2018

James (Jimmie) Spencer, president and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association for 32 years, died on July 16 in Vernon, British Columbia at the age of 92. Born in 1926 in Scotland, Spencer lied about his age in 1943 to enlist in the British Army. He was thrown directly into the fray as part of...

President and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association

James (Jimmie) Spencer
Passing Date: July 16, 2018

James (Jimmie) Spencer, president and CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association for 32 years, died on July 16 in Vernon, British Columbia at the age of 92. Born in 1926 in Scotland, Spencer lied about his age in 1943 to enlist in the British Army. He was thrown directly into the fray as part of...

Head Ski Company VP/Engineering

John Howe
Passing Date: June 15, 2018

John G. Howe, the chief engineer at Head skis during its transition from Timonium, Maryland to Boulder and Kennelbach, died June 15, 2018, at age 83. A native of the Berkshire Mountains, John learned to ski as soon as he could walk and spent his early years skiing in the western shadow of Mount...

New Jersey ski resort pioneer

Peg Kurlander
Passing Date: June 6, 2018

Margaret Mary Kurlander, 84, passed away on June 6 in Salt Lake City, with her children John, Jamie and Judy at her side.  Peg grew up in North Arlington, New Jersey, earned a bachelor’s degree from New Jersey State Teachers College and became an elementary school teacher.  After joining the Twin...

10th Mountain Division veteran, U.S. Ski Team and prep-school coach

Donald Henderson
Passing Date: May 24, 2018

10th Mountain Division veteran Don Henderson, 94, who succeeded Bob Beattie as head coach of the U.S. Ski Team in 1970, died peacefully at home in Fairlee, Vermont on May 24, 2018.   Born on May 6, 1924, in Berlin, New Hampshire, Don graduated from Berlin High School in 1942. As a ski trooper in...

SKI, Skiing magazine editor

John Henry Auran
Passing Date: April 22, 2018

An editor at SKI and Skiing magazines for 25 years until 1985, and author of the first American ski encyclopedia, John Henry Auran, 90, died April 22, 2018 at the Mountainside Residential Care Center, Margaretville, in New York’s Catskill Mountain region where he’d lived for the past 30 years. ...

Co-founder of Appalachian Ski Mountain

D. Grady Moretz, Jr.
Passing Date: April 8, 2018

Grady Moretz, the co-founder, owner and operator of Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, passed away April 8, 2018 at his home in Boone. He was 88 years old. In 1968, Moretz and five partners bought Blowing Rock Ski Lodge in foreclosure, and over the years invested millions of...

Coach, broadcaster, ski racing impresario

Bob Beattie
Passing Date: April 1, 2018

Bob Beattie: An Appreciation By John Fry Bold, dynamic, charismatic, Bob Beattie fueled much of what happened to competitive alpine skiing between 1960 and the end of the 20th Century. During those 40 years the U.S. Ski Team, Nastar, the World Cup, professional racing, and television coverage of...

New England ski-school director and instructor

Jules Eberhard
Passing Date: March 22, 2018

PSIA Life Membership honoree Jules Eberhard, 85, died peacefully at his Cambridge, Vermont home on March 22 after a brief illness. Jules’ lifetime love of mountains and skiing began in his native Switzerland and connected him solidly to the U.S. ski industry when he emigrated to the United States...

Racer, Ski Company Executive

Frank Hurt
Passing Date: March 15, 2018

Frank Newton Hurt, 82, died on March 15, 2018 in Gilford, New Hampshire. He grew up in Sanbornton, New Hampshire and captained his state-championship ski team at Laconia High School, and then, as a top four-event skier, captained the Middlebury College team. Graduating in 1958 with a degree in...