Howard Peterson (1951 - 2020)
Howard Peterson was an outspoken and influential contributor to the winter sports landscape of the Intermountain Area. Thousands of athletes and Utah’s Olympic legacy are the better for it.
In 1986 he moved the headquarters of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association to Utah, putting athletes closer to major training and competitive venues.
In addition, he helped heightened the profile of Park City’s America’s Opening World Cup racing extravaganzas during the 1980s that put international race officials on notice that Utah was highly capable of staging world-class competitions, an important criterion in Salt Lake City being selected to stage the Olympic/Paralympic Winter Games of 2002.
His penchant for encouraging the development of sustainable completion sites led to Soldier Hollow near Heber City, Utah being selected as the biathlon and cross-country venue for the games.
Today, Soldier Hollow stands as a showpiece Olympic Games legacy, serving as a world-class training facility as well as being popular among recreational skiers and winter and summer tourists. The venue’s sustainability was assured when Howard established the Soldier Hollow Foundation and Soldier Hollow Charter School.
Before retiring as director of the foundation in 2014, Howard raised $1 million for a skiers’ day lodge to further solidify venue’s long-term use.
Even in retirement Peterson kept working for the benefit of athletes, serving in a leadership role with the International Ski Federation (F.I.S.) and helping the organization nurture the then-fledging Olympic sport of competitive snowboarding.
The marquee fetes of Howard Peterson are numerous. So are the legacy venues and winter athletes that he helped develop.
