Dedicated race official and TD Margo Eaton dies

Prominent ski racing official Margaret “Margo” Eaton, a resident of Nashua, New Hampshire, and formerly of Vail and Denver, died peacefully on Sept. 25 at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.


PROMINENT SKI RACING official Margaret “Margo” Eaton, a resident of Nashua, New Hampshire, and formerly of Vail and Denver, died peacefully on Sept. 25 at age 79 at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.


    She was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 25, 1928, the daughter of Wyndham Kenneth and Alberta Thompson Eaton. She graduated from Smith College in 1950. 
A longtime volunteer in the world of skiing, Margo moved to Colorado in 1966. She was a founding member of the Denver Ski Ball Committee for the United States Ski Team and served as a director of the Rocky Mountain Division USSA and the United States Ski Association. 


    As a Level 4 alpine official and technical delegate, she officiated at all levels of competition, including all major and national World Cup events held in Vail from 1967 to 2000 and the 1980 Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid. In 1979, Eaton became a trustee of the Rocky Mountain Ski Race Officials Inc., a nonprofit organization established to educate, train and certify alpine ski officials and to promote accuracy and fair play in the governing of competitive ski events. 


    She served as president from 1982 to 1987 and from 1985 through 1989 served on the race committee for the World Alpine Ski Championships. In 1990, she received Ski Club Vail’s President’s Award and in 1991 the USSA Rocky Mountain Division’s Halstead Memorial Award for outstanding service to the sport of skiing. She was inducted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1992.


    She enjoyed photography, travel, visiting art museums, and listening to jazz, musical theater, classical music and opera. After she retired from skiing and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2002, she became an enthusiastic supporter and volunteer for the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.


    She is survived by her children, Katherine Harbison and her husband, Donald, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts; Karen Girard of Fort Fairfield, Maine; Kurt Eaton of Rocklin, California; and six grandchildren. She was the sister of W. Thompson Eaton and his wife, Constance, of Hamburg, New York.
    In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Eaton’s memory to The Colorado Ski Museum, P.O. Box 1976, Vail, CO 81658 or The Wheelwright Museum, P.O. Box 5153, Santa Fe, NM 87502.