Byron “Bud” Dow
Bud Dow took up skiing as a teenager after reading an article about the sport. By the mid thirties he was racing in events around New England including one race on Mount Washington where a bad fall resulted in an 8 hour rescue and 11 broken bones.
It didn’t slow him down. Determined to become a better skier Dow became an instructor and was certified by PSIA in 1939 while working for the Hannes Schneider Ski School at Mount Cranmore.
At the start of World War II, Bud joined the Navy but those old injuries prevented him from passing the physical so as a licensed pilot he was hired by the Navy to train cadets in Pittsfield, Maine. At the war’s end he returned to his native Portland to work for Edwards & Walker Co. selling hardware and sporting goods at wholesale. In 1948, he returned to Pittsfield as a sales representative as the company expanded north. Before the war he had given ski lessons on local hills in the Portland area and he continued to ski with his family.
In the fall of 1954 he and fellow skier Jack Baxter wanted a place to ski in Pittsfield and looked to the only hill of any size in the area, a 140 foot hump called the Pinnacle. They got permission from the elderly lady who owned the land to build the slope and within ten weeks the Kiwanis Ski Slope (For the $500 the club donated) was ready for operation. That was left to the newly formed Pinnacle Ski Club with Dow as its first president.
From that time on until his early death in 1979, Bud Dow and his club provided instruction for all levels and free lessons for kids. A competitor himself, to encourage competition for all ages he set up season ending races. Buying trophies and ribbons and providing stop watches he trained others to assist and the races continue to this day.
By the late fifties Bud was coaching the ski team at Maine Central Institute and he became a race official working as course setter, jumping judge and referee. Becoming certified as an alpine official he worked several positions in the 1967 NCAA’s at Sugarloaf and again at the Tall Timber Classic World Cup Downhills in 1971.
Bud Dow did it all, a competitor in the early 30’s, a ski shop operator in the mid 30’s, a slope creator, a nordic center developer, and most of all a teacher of children for more than 40 years. Today the Pinnacle hut is a memorial and a plaque on a granite marker reads “Bud Dow, 1916-1979, Founder, Builder, President, Pinnacle Ski Club, He Loved Kids-Skiing-Building.”
Thanks to his efforts thousands of kids learned to ski at Pinnacle. A life dedicated to skiing and kids of his town and state have earned Byron “Bud” Dow a place in the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.
Bud Dow also contributed to the 1977 restoration of the Depot House.
Athenaeum Club plaque
