Veteran ski sport journalist and Ski Racing correspondent, Paul Robbins, died Saturday at his home doing what he did best, covering ski sport.
    He was 68. Heart attack was the apparent cause.
    Robbins was known by generations of athletes who participated in every form of ski sport. While he covered every discipline, he focused on the nordic area where he was considered to be perhaps “the” expert journalist on the sport in the United States.
    He first started covering the sport in 1979 according to his friend and longtime associate, Tom Kelly, USSA vice president for communications. “I was working for Tony Wise at Telemark Resort in Wisconsin,” Kelly recalled. “Wise liked something Paul wrote and asked him to come to the World Cup race he was holding at Telemark. It was Paul’s first exposure to competitive skiing.”
    But far from his last.
    Robbins’ shuffling gate and his Scottish Tam o’Shanter became an institution in skiing press rooms worldwide. He covered the last seven winter Olympic Games for both Ski Racing and virtually every major broadcast network including NBC, CBS and ABC. He knew athletes, coaches and parents, where to find them and what to ask them no matter how elated or how trying the circumstances.
WEATHERSFIELD, Vermont – Veteran ski sport journalist and Ski Racing correspondent, Paul Robbins, died Saturday at his home doing what he did best, covering ski sport.
    He was 68. Heart attack was the apparent cause.
    Robbins was known by generations of athletes who participated in every form of ski sport. While he covered every discipline, he focused on the nordic area where he was considered to be perhaps “the” expert journalist on the sport in the United States.
    He first started covering the sport in 1979 according to his friend and longtime associate, Tom Kelly, USSA vice president for communications. “I was working for Tony Wise at Telemark Resort in Wisconsin,” Kelly recalled. “Wise liked something Paul wrote and asked him to come to the World Cup race he was holding at Telemark. It was Paul’s first exposure to competitive skiing.”
    But far from his last.
    Robbins’ shuffling gate and his Scottish Tam o’Shanter became an institution in skiing press rooms worldwide. He covered the last eight winter Olympic Games for both Ski Racing and virtually every major broadcast network including NBC, CBS and ABC. He knew athletes, coaches and parents, where to find them and what to ask them no matter how elated or how trying the circumstances.
    He was known for staying in contact and for caring about young reporters who were just starting out covering the sport. Robbins always had time for them.
    Nate Vinton, who cut his reportorial teeth with Ski Racing recalls, “He never had problems remembering names and dates. He was an old-school journalist, and I learned a ton about the craft from him, but not enough. A wire guy, he was fast and impeccably accurate.”
    “Even at his most curmudgeonly, he was always warm and generous, looking to laugh about something,” Vinton added.
    Robbins’ sense of humor and ability to come up with quick quips was legendary. So was his penchant for sending jokes worldwide to his friends, many of whom had Robbins nicknames. Ex-timesman, rangerrick, nattymom, database, abbottandkochstello, and Aytch were but a few of the Ski Racing e-mail monikers he dubbed on staffers over the years.
Bob Condron, longtime U. S. Olympic Committee media guru and currently Director of Media Services for USOC, recalled that Robbins “was a friend of many people.”
    Doug Haney, the current ski team press officer, reminisced about visiting Robbins at his home in Vermont and being shown his office.
    “I'd heard stories, but until actually seeing it, didn't realize his work space should be a national landmark. If you're looking for results from the 1947 U.S. Cross Country champs, they're in the grey file in the back left corner of the room. You'll find it under the last 40 Years of Ski Racing,” Haney recalled.
    Robbins wrote for Ski Racing from the early 80’s until his death. His last column was written for the publication’s Web page under the title Robbins Nest. Posted last Thursday, it was typically full of miscellaneous news including the fact that U. S. cross-country star, Kikkan Randall, was engaged, a fact which few knew save those close to the couple.
    “He was the hardest working journalist I knew. Personal friend of more people than I know. And will be sadly, sadly missed,” said veteran Ski Racing editor Hank McKee.
    At the request of USSA, Robbins was asked to put on the media teleconference with Lindsey Vonn who had just cinched the downhill title for the year. Knowing the relationship between the only other downhill title holder, Picabo Street, Robbins arranged for Street to call into the press conference where there was a great exchange between the new and old downhill champions. After the press conference, Street recalled to Tom Kelly, “Paul called me to thank me for joining in and added it was one of the best press conferences he had been a part of.”
    It would be his last.
    Early in his career, Robbins was the New England bureau manager for United Press International. Leaving UPI he set off on what was to become a multi-faceted freelance career with short, unsuccessful employment stint with the U.S. Ski Team as PR manager. He was the team’s nordic correspondent for several years in the early 1980’s.
    A sports aficionado and typical New Englander, Robbins was the penultimate Boston Red Sox fan. Baseball was his sport and he coached Little League in nearby Reading, Vermont.
    “With Paul gone, the sport has lost a knowledge base which will not be replaced,” said Gary Black, past publisher of Ski Racing. “He loved the sport and almost all of the people around it. It showed in his work, his conversations, his humor and his smile.”
    He is survived by Kathe, his wife of 18 years, a son, David, and stepdaughter, Anna. Services have not yet been determined