Longtime U.S. FIS delegate Ted Sutton retires

By Published On: May 30th, 2008Comments Off on Longtime U.S. FIS delegate Ted Sutton retires

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Longtime USSA member and FIS delegate Ted Sutton announced his resignation from the FIS alpine courses committee after serving for 24 years.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Longtime USSA member and FIS delegate Ted Sutton announced his resignation from the FIS alpine courses committee after serving for 24 years.
    “I’m going fishing,” the longtime course inspector said, adding that “skiing has been my whole life.”
    Sutton’s career as a volunteer began on the Lake Placid women’s Olympic downhill course in 1979 at an Olympic test event when Willy Schaeffler, who was chief of course, selected him from a group of course workers because he “skied like a racer.”
    “That was the beginning,” Sutton recalls. “I was with Willy for the Games in Lake Placid and he convinced me to become a TD.”
    Most of Sutton’s career has centered on skiing in New England, mostly in New Hampshire. It began in Boston Hill, and he then migrated to western Massachusetts where he was a ski coach.
    “I tried being an instructor,” he said. “But I like being with people over time. Coaching was the answer.” While in Massachusetts he founded the state’s Buddy Werner league for high school competition that is still in place today.
    Sutton coached at Crotched Mountain and then moved on to Loon where he became director of public relations and environmental affairs.
    Bill Marolt has been a real factor in Sutton’s career. The two first met at a World Cup in Cannon Mountain in 1967 but it wasn’t until Marolt took over USSA that Sutton began to see the change in how USSA would be managed.
    “He demanded we toe the line. We had to produce,” he said.
    “Ted Sutton exemplifies USSA volunteers,” Marolt said, noting volunteerism was a theme of the USSA Congress this spring. “He is fun to work with and one of the consummate volunteers. We will miss him.”
    As to retirement, Sutton said, “I told myself that 70 was going to be it so I resigned as town manager for Lincoln (N.H.) and now the FIS.”
    As his last duty and as thanks for his many years of service, Marolt asked Sutton to be one of three United States official delegates to the FIS convention here which carries the responsibility of voting on all questions that come before the assembly.
    And he really is going fishing. Sutton’s son, Tom, is a lobster fisherman operating out of Hampton, N.H. Look for Sutton pulling pots off the New Hampshire coast in between days on the slopes. — G.B. Jr.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh