David Judson, founding president of National Ski Areas Association, has been elected posthumously to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame. We applaud. It is all-too-easy today to take for granted an effective, responsive NSAA that provides countless excellent member services. It is easy to forget the vision, energy and commitment of a few leaders 35 years ago that created and gave direction to NSAA. Indeed, the concept had to be sold to an unorganized, largely skeptical bunch of individual area operators across the country.
It was to Dave Judson, the modest proprietor of a small Massachusetts ski area, Otis Ridge, that the call went to lead the effort, and he provided it for the first three years of NSAA’s existence. As a later NSAA president, Waterville Valley’s Tom Corcoran, put it, “He was respected and trusted by the CEOs of the largest ski resorts across the country. He was a true leader who emerged at a time when the incipient U.S. ski area industry really needed leadership.”
Those early leaders—Dave Judson, Aspen’s Darcy Brown, Perry Williams of Snow Ridge, N.Y., Steve Bradley of Winter Park and Bill Norton of New Hampshire’s Cannon Mt.—richly deserve the thanks of all of us who benefit from their legacy.
