CLASS OF 1945 | 2023 | SUMMER ISSUE

Since my last column, it has been very gratifying to me to receive the number of favorable comments from so many alumni. When you get to be probably the only member of the class, it’s better to receive information from outside its confines than to just sit and talk to yourself. I have no word from any individual from the class, the actual class of 1945, so I speak for all or none as you wish. As a result of the recent publicity I received in dealing with matters of the 10th Mountain Division and Camp Hale becoming a national monument, I can now tell you that the Denver NBC station is planning a documentary concerning the 10th Mountain’s influence on not just land and monuments but also the impact on the economy that the development of the ski industry in Colorado has bought. When the members of the 10th Mountain Division came back from Italy, numbers of them came back to Colorado and settled into building ski resorts. Such places as Vale, Copper, Arapaho, et al., were built by entrepreneurs who saw a need and filled it. Not only ski resorts but the entire ski industry—for instance, manufacturing new and better skis, improving boots, safety harnesses—all the gear associated with skiing came under their observation and development. As a consequence, Colorado has become famous for its ski offerings and famous in all areas of the ski industry from the planks people now ski on to the post-skiing fireside delights that the resorts offer.

I am proud of my association with the 10th Mountain Division, am happy in being part of all that it has offered and brought to Colorado, and am satisfied that out of all this will come some significant development of the old Camp Hale site. It was a pleasure for me to get to know two alumni senators, Michael Bennet ’87 and John Hickenlooper ’74.

As we used to say in parting, “Ski heil.”

Slán go fóill.