Joseph Clarence Jones, ski coach and co-founder of the Mid-Vermont Junior Alpine Racing Council and the Vermont Alpine Racing Association died July 17, 2021, in Rutland, Vermont. He was 97. Anne Jones, who together with Joe helped promote skiing and racing throughout the Vermont region, passed April 17, 2020, at the age of 90.
During World War II, Joe served in the 10th Mountain Division, 87th Regiment, based at Camp Hale, Colorado. He saw action on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
Joe was the 1942 Vermont State Alpine Champion. He went on to coach the Middlebury College Ski Team and manage the Middlebury Snow Bowl in the late 1940s. Anne won the Gibson Cup at Cannon, New Hampshire.
Joe and Anne married in 1949 and coached together at the Pico and Killington ski clubs. In 1956, Anne and Joe formed the Mid-Vermont Junior Skiing Council to promote children’s skiing, foster inter-club competition, and develop elite ski racers from the region. In 1971, Joe co-founded the Vermont Alpine Racing Association (VARA), the first statewide ski racing association in the United States. He is a member of the Vermont Ski Hall of Fame.
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