Lives

Wilmot ski school director

Cal Beisswanger
Passing Date: December 27, 2016

Cal Beisswanger, long-time director of the Wilmot Mountain Ski School in Wisconsin, passed away on December 27, 2016, at age 81.  Cal joined the Wilmot staff in 1955 and became a fully certified instructor in 1958. He served as co-director of the school until his retirement in 1990. In the mid...

Hans Heierling: Ski boot innovator

Hans Heierling
Passing Date: December 22, 2016

Hans J. Heierling Jr., who for four decades headed his family’s ski boot business, died December 22, 2016, at age 91.   Hans Jr. was the third in a line of cobblers who made custom ski boots in Davos, Switzerland. The firm sprang from the workshop of his grandfather Franz Heierling, who opened a...

Stowe, Vermont leader; Top Notch resort owner

Arthur Kreizel
Passing Date: December 13, 2016

Arthur Kreizel died at home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, on December 13, 2016. He was 92 years old. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Kreizel ran two large textile companies. He retired in 1970 and moved to Stowe, Vermont. There, with partner Jack Cummings, he acquired the...

Mountaineer, pioneering Vail ski instructor

Dick Pownall
Passing Date: December 6, 2016

*/ Dick Pownall, 89, passed away on December 6, 2016.  In 1947, at age 20, Pownall was one of the original climbing guides at the Exum Guide Service in Teton National Park, where he put up many classic routes, and married climber Mary Flint. He spent winters teaching physical education and math at...

Snow Summit CEO

Dick Kun
Passing Date: November 27, 2016

Richard 'Dick' Kun, former chairman and CEO of Snow Summit Ski Corporation and one of the true visionaries of the American ski industry, passed away on November 27 in Big Bear Lake after a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 76. His family and his close friends were at his side when he...

Ski writer, World War II hero, marketing consultant

Ted Heck
Passing Date: November 11, 2016

*/ Well-known ski writer Ted Heck, 94, died November 11, 2016. A football player and wrestler at Lehigh University in 1941, Heck entered the U.S. Army after Pearl Harbor as a private. While serving in France with the 70th Infantry Division, he earned a Bronze Star and Silver Star for gallantry,...

Longtime Ski Racing journalist and statistician

Hank McKee
Passing Date: November 5, 2016

Acclaimed ski journalist Hank McKee, who covered the sport at all levels and around the world during his 36-year career at Ski Racing, died unexpectedly at home in Duxbury, Vermont on November 5, 2016. He was 66.  McKee was a man of contradiction. Jovial and carefree, he sported an aging-hippie-...

Marketing executive at Lange, A&T, Copper Mountain

Al Goto
Passing Date: November 1, 2016

*/ Al Goto, who built a successful career as a marketing executive in the ski industry, died on November 1, 2016.   With a lifelong passion for skiing, Al got his start in the business working at A&T ski manufacturers in Seattle. In 1970 he became one of the first employees at Lange’s new...

Arnold Lunn archivist

Nicholas Scheetz
Passing Date: October 29, 2016

Nicholas Scheetz, 63, who was instrumental in bringing to the United States the papers of Sir Arnold Lunn, died October 29 at his home in Newport, Rhode Island.  Scheetz was for two decades the Manuscripts Librarian of Special Collections at Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library in Washington,...

Racer, ski equipment innovator

Erik Giese
Passing Date: October 10, 2016

Erik O. Giese, 76, died October 10 at his home in Key Biscayne, Florida.  Born in Seattle, Giese competed in all ski disciplines, and as a junior competed in the national Nordic combined championship. As a member of the University of Washington Ski Team he was a four-way NCAA competitor, and was...