From Deseret News archives:
Ski writer remembered for knowledge, friendship
He was press chief for the luge. I was a first-time Olympic reporter completely lost and bewildered, staying in a room not much larger than a closet, spending hours a day trying to beat traffic problems and crowded streets and covering events I knew little about, like the luge.
He said I asked some pretty funny questions, and that's how he remembered. I remembered I did ask some rather dumb questions, something like whether luge was as uncomfortable as it looked?
We would reconnect in Park City for the World Cup events at America's Opening, and since then we've run into each other almost on an annual basis, either at some skiing or ski jumping or freestyle event.
He was for 30 years involved in writing about the U.S. Ski Team. He traveled with and wrote about America's winter athletes. From what I could tell, he was a friend to them all and tried, very hard, to give proper recognition to them in his stories.
When I would arrive at the press room, hours before an event, there would be Paul, attached to his computer by his fingers. When I would leave the press room, hours after an event, my story filed, there would be Paul, his fingers still connected to his computer. His stories went over the international wires and onto the pages of magazines like SKI, Skiing and Ski Racing.
I received word this week from Tom Kelly, vice president of communications for the U.S. team, that Paul had died at home — working on a story, as I would have expected. The cause was an apparent heart attack. He was 68.
The last time we met was at the World Cup freestyle event at Deer Valley earlier this month. There he was, as I'd come to expect, sitting in front of his computer. I tapped his shoulder, he turned and gave — again what I'd come to expect — a warm, upbeat welcome and the standard, "What's going on in Salt Lake City?"
He told me then he would be cutting back on his ski-team work and was thinking of going back into travel writing but didn't really find it all that exciting anymore. More about pictures than words anymore, he said.
We talked about his health, his life, a little about sports in general, and then I did what I'd done so many times before: I asked him questions about a sport I knew little about — ski cross — and he educated me.
I will miss seeing Paul in the press room and standing around the finish waiting to interview athletes and his often witty news conference interviews at the end of events.
I will also miss the opportunity to tap into that wealth of knowledge he stored up over the years about competitive skiing, and in particular the U.S. ski and snowboard teams.
As Kelly said, his "vast knowledge is legendary."
That is gone. Good memories of Paul, our talks and his always upbeat attitude and quick wit I can keep.
E-mail: grass@desnews.com
