Fast, Fashionable and Fearless

Meet the 2019 inductees to the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum’s Hall of Fame.

On November 2, you can rub elbows with Olympians, pay tribute to one of the most fashionable (and fast) women in ski history and meet one of the original Redneck Racers. The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum honors the 2019 Hall of Fame winners—Vermonters who have had an impact on the sport—at a gala at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe. Meet the five honorees, as well as the winner of the First Tracks Award—which goes to a leader in the sport who is under 35 (created in memory of former board member and ski racer Ian Graddock who passed away at that age in 2016). The evening also pays tribute to author (and  occasional Vermont Ski + Ride contributor) Peggy Shinn, who won this year’s Paul Robbins award for ski journalism. More info at vtssm.org.

John Brodhead

John Brodhead skied four events at Vermont Academy (‘62)—slalom, downhill, cross country and jumping, and raced at Middlebury College. In 1979 he began directing Craftsbury Outdoor Center’s ski program. There, he developed an extensive trail system and started numerous ski programs for kids and adults including the Bill Koch League and summer training programs. He founded and organized the Craftsbury Marathon, one of the most popular ski marathons in the country. Today, winners of the Marathon are awarded the John Brodhead Award. Brodhead founded the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club in 1997, modeled on the Scandinavian tradition of multi-generational ski training. In his 38 years as Director of the COC, John touched the lives of countless skiers.

John “JG” Gerndt

For 30-plus years. John “JG” Gerndt’s passion and hard work have planted seeds of innovation that have changed the way people enjoy snowboards around the globe. After landing a spot on the 1983 Burton team he was among the first generations of riders in the region and helped define the culture and customs of this new approach to sliding on snow. JG helped guide the first Burton factories in Europe, and he traveled all over the world with the Burton Team as a tester and designer. He played a preeminent role in designing revolutionary surf-inspired boards, and built boards for legendary riders including Terje Haakonsen, Kelly Clark, Danny Davis, Red Gerard and Chloe Kim. He also has designed boards for fellow Hall-of-Famers Jake and Donna Carpenter, Jeff Brushie and Ross Powers (to name a few). Gerndt still plays a leading role in Burton’s product development. He rides an average of 100 boards a year. He lives in Stowe, where he has volunteered for the Friday school snowsports programs and does all he can to keep the fire burning for younger generations.

John Hastings 

Norwich’s John Hastings first made the National Ski Jumping Team while at Williams College.

After successful finishes at the 1983 World Cup in Lake Placid he qualified for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia where he placed fourth—a mere 1.7 points from bronze. His result has remained the best American Olympic ski jumping finish since Anders Haugen’s bronze medal at the inaugural Winter Games in 1924. Hastings has served as a ski jumping TV analyst for every Winter Games since 1988. In 2009 he worked with other jumpers to found USA Ski Jumping, now USA Nordic Sports. He started the “Story Project,” which solicits stories from jumpers past, present and future, and has archived more than 200 stories about the sport.

Doug Lewis

Encouraged by his mother who was a ski instructor at Middlebury Snow Bowl, Doug Lewis was on skis by the age of three. By age ten he was hooked on ski racing and had already set his sights on the Olympics. He went on to become a two-time U.S. National Champion (‘86), a two-time member the U.S. World Championship team, the first American male ever to win a medal in the downhill at the World Championships and a two-time Olympian (‘84, ‘88). He has continued to be a tireless advocate for skiing and ski racing and is actively involved in every level of the ski industry as a broadcaster, TV host, ski celebrity, motivational speaker, product consultant, spokesperson, journalist, coach and fitness trainer. For over 25 years, he has run ELITEAM camps and clinics, designed to inspire and educate young ski racers and he continues to host summer camps in Waitsfield, where he and his wife Kelly lived for many years and where, as a high school athlete,  Lewis attended the Green Mountain Valley School.

 Ann “Nosedive Annie” Bonfoey Taylor (1910-2007) 

Ever the sportswoman, Ann Bonfoey Taylor competed at Wimbledon as a tennis player long before starting her ski racing career. While living and racing in Stowe, she acquired the nickname, “Nosedive Annie” and became an alternate to the 1940 Olympic Ski Team. She had a colorful and illustrious life in skiing and fashion. She designed ski apparel, which was featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Life and sold in her Ann Cooke shop in Stowe and at Lord & Taylor in New York. She was married to ski pioneer J. Negley Cooke before marrying Vernon “Moose” Taylor in 1947. As one of the founders of Vail, the couple built one of the first ski chalets there. Her extensive couture clothing collection was donated to the Phoenix Museum of Art after she passed away in 2007. 

First Tracks Award: Tim Kelley

Despite multiple injuries, Tim Kelley has made the most of his ski racing career. After being dropped from the National Team in 2010 and undergoing multiple knee surgeries, Kelley was determined to re-enter the international scene. With his brother Robby, he founded “Redneck Racing,” a group of skiers who raced at the World Cup level without U.S. Team support. Tim was renamed to the National Team and had his best World Cup results in 2016 before retiring, undergoing another surgery, and finishing at UVM. He continues to inspire and motivate young skiers with his energy and competitive integrity, and plays an active role at Cochran’s Ski Area in maintaining, grooming and mowing the ski and mountain bike trail systems. As a member of the renowned Cochran ski racing family (his mother Lindy Cochran Kelley was a national slalom champion and finished 6th in the Innsbruck Olympics), he serves on the board of Cochran’s Ski Area and strives to promote the ski area’s mission “to provide area youth and families with affordable skiing and snowboarding, lessons and race training, in the Cochran tradition.” Kelley volunteers with Vermont Special Olympics and as the Pace Biker for the Hand Cyclists at the Burlington Marathon.

Paul Robbins Award: Peggy Shinn

Peggy Shinn of Rutland grew up and learned to ski in the Northeast Kingdom and began writing about the sport in 1997. She began by covering local skiing for The Rutland Herald and soon was

contributing to just about every ski publication in North America, including Ski Racing, Skiing, SKI, and VT Ski + Ride. In 2008, she became a founding writer for TeamUSA.org and has covered five Olympic Games since. In 2018, two weeks after Shinn’s book, World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team, hit the shelves, Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins won the first U.S. Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing.

Featured Photo Caption: A former Wimbledon tennis player, “Nosedive Annie” became a figure in both ski racing and fashion.