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Goldman: ‘Skiing is more than just a sport’

Bernie Goldman, center, with Roger Perricone, l, and Esther DelliQuadri.DENVERITE Bernie Goldman — a passionate skier in Colorado for more than half a century — was honored last month by the US Ski and Snowboard Assn., which conferred on him its Halstead Memorial Award “for service to the sport of skiing in the Rocky Mountain Division.”

Goldman, a retired financial services professional, received the award at an Oct. 16 ceremony in Frisco.

The Halstead Award, inaugurated in 1943, has been given to some of Colorado’s leading ski resort developers and owners, as well as to individuals who have supported or advocated the sport of skiing.

Previous recipients include Willy Schaeffler, former DU ski coach and founder of the Arapahoe East ski area; Peter Seibert, founder of Vail; Bill Marolt, president of the USSA; and Dick Durrance, Olympic skiing medalist and ski photographer.

Goldman, who is in his second term as a director of the association’s Rocky Mountain Division, ?has been a USSA volunteer and official at skiing competitions for 15 years.

“I generally am the finish referee,” he told the IJN this week, “but I’ve also served as a starting referee, gate judge, starter — pretty much whatever they need.”

He has been a tireless promoter of Colorado skiing, encouraging everyone from his personal friends to professional competitors to give Rocky Mountain skiing a try.

A NATIVE of New York, Goldman says he has been skiing since he was a small child.

He remembers visiting Macy’s department store in Manhattan with his father on a Christmas Eve in the early 1930s. His father, thinking that skiing would be a good sport for his son, bought him his first pair of skis on the spot.

“I eventually got good enough that my dad and I took the ski train to Bear Mountain, where I became friendly with the Scandinavian and Austrian refugees from Europe who hung out and jumped there, and they also taught ‘the kid,’” Goldman says.

Throughout his youth and young adulthood, Goldman skied in New York, New England and Switzerland.

He skied his first run in Colorado on a 1956 trip to Aspen — back when “it was a small friendly ‘Hi ya!’ type of town,” he says — and subsequently returned here as often as he could.

“Finally,” Goldman says, “I decided to take a permanent vacation” in 1973, when he moved to Evergreen, and was among the founders of Beth Evergreen.

Goldman and his wife Susan have been active members of the local Jewish community and have been recognized for their work to restore the Solomon Synagogue on the grounds of the former Jewish Consumptives Relief Society in Lakewood.

Goldman is currently working with Denver JDS to help it organize a ski club for students.

Proud that his children and grandchildren are also Colorado skiers, some of them having been successful competitors, Goldman — who describes his age only as “well over 80” — has a ready answer when asked whether he still skis himself.

“Is the pope still Catholic?” he asks with a friendly laugh.

“For me, skiing is more than just a sport,” Goldman says. “It’s a character development activity. It develops good sportsmanship, respect for your fellow athletes, confidence, decision-making and independence. It’s an excellent individual sport. When you’re up on the slopes, whether you’re doing a grand slalom or just going downhill, it’s just you and the clock.”

Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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IJN Assistant Editor | [email protected]


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