Honore Bonnet dies in France at age 85{mosimage}GRENOBLE, France (AP) - Honore Bonnet, who coached France's Alpine ski team during its golden era in the 1960s, has died at 85.

Bonnet died Tuesday near the Pra-Loup ski resort. The French sports daily L'Equipe said he died of heart failure.

Nicknamed Napoleon, Bonnet was the French ski team director from 1959 to 1968. He helped develop stars like Jean-Claude Killy, a three-time gold medalist at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble in 1968.

Bonnet also worked with sisters Marielle and Christine Goitschel, Olympic champions in 1964 and 1968, as well as Jean Vuarnet, Guy Perillat and Adrien Duvillard - who all won either Olympic or world championship golds in the 1960s.

"It is not a chief who has gone, nor a friend, or even a brother. It is a father," Killy said in Wednesday's edition of L'Equipe. "He had a natural authority. The success he accumulated is down to the word respect."

Marielle Goitschel called Bonnet "an extraordinary man."

"He could always find the right words, the talent to teach people how to overcome their mistakes," she said.

Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour also paid tribute.

"This man was all heart, passionate. He worked ceaselessly to promote French skiing," Lamour said.

-The Associated Press