Max Dercum – Ski Industry Pioneer Passes Away at 98
I heard that Max Dercum passed away today. I knew he was getting up there in years. I thought about him recently as I was driving up to Montezuma. In early 1990 I arrived in Summit County and more or less grew up playing and skiing at Arapahoe Basin. It is there that some of my best memories and friends have been made. I also know that Arapahoe Basin has always had one heck of a tight extended family working and playing there too. For all of us we owe it to the vision of the original Board of Directors who built A-Basin.
Max Dercum and his wife were co-founders of that group and I had the opportunity to meet them many times in my early days working at Keystone. Edna’s book, ‘It’s easy, Edna, it’s downhill all the way’ was somewhat of an introduction to Keystone and Summit County for me. Filled with adventure and history it brought me back to the days of reading ‘Little House‘ books and was a great inspiration after moving to the mountains from the big city of New York.
Then, I had kids and I couldn’t wait to introduce them to the sport of skiing. Each one of them skied in my belly at “the Basin”. After they were born and as soon as they could stand they were strapped to boards so they could glide down Molly Hogan. To this day they are excited to get up there for opening day and would not prefer skiing anywhere else.
I got to meet Max and Eden during the years I was a wedding planner at Keystone and Ski Tip Lodge. More recently I had the opportunity to meet with Max at his home. We were reviewing pictures of Edna for a feature article on her after she had passed away. We went through incredible amounts of photographs and video. I will tell you, I have never felt more honored.
Max was a lovely, intelligent gentleman. His passion and enthusiasm for life in the mountains, his family and the sport of skiing was inspiring. His mark on the snowsport industry is forever engraved.
I bet he and Enda are flying down a mountain together again. Can’t wait for the snow to fall.
Thank you Max.
~Holly Resignolo
Photo Courtesy of Arapahoe Basin
For other articles on Max Dercum: http://arapahoebasin.blogspot.com/, http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20110930/NEWS/110939990
