Ski history buffs honor Dick Dorworth
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
In the final hours of their 10th annual
gathering last week, members of the International Skiing History
Association (ISHA) honored one of the Wood River Valley’s own, Dick
Dorworth, with its Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.
Against a backdrop of Baldy through the floor-to-ceiling
window in the River Run Lodge and in the company of ski Olympians,
Dorworth accepted the award from Doug Pfeifer, a former editor of Skiing
magazine.
Dorworth said his formula for writing was to be accurate,
fun and entertaining for his readers. He wrote regularly for Ski, Skiing
and the Mountain Gazette through the 1960s, `70s and `80s.
His first major piece in ski journalism was for Ski
in 1964 about the new world record for speed skiing set in Portillo,
Chile.
The record he wrote about was the one he set in 1963—106.8
mph.
In the audience was Leif Odmark, coach for the 1952 U.S.
Cross Country and Nordic Combined Olympic teams; Penny Pitou, 1960 double
silver Olympic medalist; and Joanne Hewson Rees, a Canadian ski team
member in the 1952 Olympics.
The entire 10th ISHA gathering, from April 1 to
April 8, was dedicated to the memory of John Jay, who Warren Miller called
the "inventor of the ski movie industry."
Punctuated by several emotional moments when he could not
speak, Mason Beekley, founder of ISHA, remembered Jay, and showed the
plaque ISHA was awarding him as "Skiing’s Man of the Century."
Odmark, asked to receive the plaque in Jay’s stead by
his widow, remembered Jay for his wonderful sense of humor.
"When he found out he had cancer, " Odmark said,
"he said he was so sorry he wouldn’t be able to make it to this
year’s Sun Valley gathering."
