The 2018 Hall of Fame Inductees
Dennis Donahue
Biathlete Olympian Dennis Donahue grew up in Essex Junction, went to Middlebury College, and currently resides in Thetford. He raced internationally from 1968 to 1976, representing the Putney Ski Club. He competed in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. He participated in five World Biathlon Championships. After seven years teaching and coaching at the Holderness School, he has spent 30-plus years dedicated to the development of competitive junior skiing in New England at the Ford Sayre program at both national and regional levels, and was actively involved with Junior Olympics. He continues to coach at Ford Sayre today!
Foster Chandler
As an avid promoter of the values inherent in alpine skiing, Foster Chandler was an integral figure in bringing the sport of skiing to the public at large. From 1964 to 1996 he was Vice President and Director of Marketing of Killington Ski Area where he helped grow Killington into one of the largest ski areas in the country. He spearheaded the mass marketing of the Graduated Length Method that revolutionized the way people learned to ski, resulting in the major growth of the sport in the 70s and 80s. He was founder and President of Ski New England for 20 years, Director of New England Ski Areas Council for 46 years, and for 8 years was Chairman of the Vermont Travel Council, and member of the Vermont and National Ski Area Associations marketing committees. Foster has skied 196 ski areas.
Hannah Kearney
Freestyle mogul skier, Olympic and World Championship medals winner, Hannah Kearney grew up in Norwich, attended Hanover High, and graduated from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. With 117 World Cup starts, she was on the podium seventy-one times, winning forty-six events. During the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, she won a record-setting sixteen World Cups in a row. Over her career, Hannah competed in three Olympic Games (2006, 2010, 2014) winning a gold medal in Vancouver and a bronze in Sochi. She also won eight World Championship medals, three gold; and ten F.I.S. World Cup crystal globes.
Dickie Hall
Pico Peak founders Janet and Brad Mead opened their ski area in Rutland on Thanksgiving Day 1937 with a rope tow on Little Pico. In 1938, Sunset Schuss opened on a hike-up basis, and Karl Acker came from Switzerland as the Ski School Director. The Meads installed the first T-bar in the US in 1940. Janet ran the ski area until 1954 after Brad’s tragic death in 1942 focusing on youth programs as their daughter Andrea Mead Lawrence succeeded internationally in ski racing, winning two Olympic gold medals in 1952.
Paul Johnston
Industry pioneer Paul Johnston accumulated many “firsts” in his thirty years of ski resort management to his credit, most notably as Vice President of Stratton Mountain where he opened the slopes to snowboarders and staged the U.S. Open of Snowboarding at Stratton starting in 1985. Keeping in step with the growth of snowboarding he brought in specialized Bombardier grooming equipment, including a pipe grinder, Stratton was able to introduce halfpipe events at the 1998 U.S. Open. As the number of riders at areas quickly grew, he was instrumental in helping other resorts navigate best practices for instructors, equipment, and liability. He also worked at Bromley Mountain, installing snowmaking and the first alpine slide in the 1970’s.