John H. “Jack” Valentine, 93, a four-way intercollegiate ski champion and long-time member of Canada’s Redbirds Ski Club and New Hampshire’s Hochgebirge Ski Club, died September 6, 2017.
Born in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts in 1924, Valentine attended Vermont Academy, where he became an enthusiastic skier. Graduating in 1943, he joined the Army Air Force. He served in Italy, flying 18 bomber missions over Germany, Austria, and Hungary.
In January 1946, Bobo Sheehan, Middlebury College’s legendary ski coach, was impressed by Valentine’s performance in a ski race in New Hampshire, and persuaded him to come to Middlebury. Valentine rose to be a powerful four-event racer, competing in slalom, downhill, cross-country and jumping. At the annual intercollegiate meet in Sun Valley in January 1948, he swept the honors, including a win in slalom and third in cross-country.
After graduation, Valentine attended graduate school at McGill University in Montreal. He was captain of the McGill Ski Team and once again scored well in multiple disciplines. At the time, McGill competed against Dartmouth and Middlebury, whose skiers formed the core of the U.S. Ski Team. At McGill, Valentine became a member of the Redbirds Ski Club, whose clubhouse was in the Laurentians. Returning to Boston, he joined the Franconia-based Hochgebirge Ski Club. The two are North America’s oldest alpine competition ski clubs.
He worked in the investment and health care fields, and served as chairman of the board of Boston University Medical Center. He also owned and operated his own farm.
He is survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Hiam; three daughters—Lisa Bennett of London, Anne Iuppa of Brownsville, Vermont, and Alison Pascarelli of Atlanta; and two sons, Ian of Los Angeles, and Thomas of Phippsburg, Maine. —John Fry
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