Charles Gibson, former USSA president and Hall of Fame member, dead at 68

Charles Gibson, former USSA president and Hall of Fame member, dead at 68{mosimage}USSA — U.S. National Skiing Hall of Fame member and former U.S. Ski Association president Charles T. Gibson died February 3 at the age of 68 in an accident in Danville, Virginia. Memorial services will be held at a date to be determined in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Alton, Virginia.

Gibson, who lived in Milton, North Carolina, was born in Schenectady, New York, and graduated from Deerfield Academy and Williams College before he earned master’s degrees in engineering and business from Harvard University. He joined IBM in 1962 and held a variety of positions in marketing, engineering and business operations before retiring in 1988 and devoting his time to the sport of vintage and contemporary car racing.

He was a Harvard ski coach and spent two decades as an alpine official, including serving on the staff of the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. He served in the 1970s as president of the then-U.S. Ski Association (now the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association), where he played a key role in reshaping the association, pioneering a fair and responsive ranking system to include innovations in timing, scoring and results in alpine. He was an officer, director and trustee of the then-U.S. Ski Education Foundation, the fundraising arm of the U.S. Ski Team, into the 1980s and founded an organization for the education of U.S. ski coaches. In 2001, he was inducted into the U.S. National Skiing Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Michigan.

In 1977, Gibson founded SascoSports in Fairfield, Connecticut, and it became a leading supplier of goods and services for vintage and contemporary racers. Several years ago Gibson and his partner Dave Handy relocated SascoSports to Alton, Virginia, at the Virginia International Raceway. Gibson served on the board of directors and as a competition instructor of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America and operated the Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival in Connecticut for over a decade, one of the most successful vintage racing events in the country.

Gibson is survived by a brother. In lieu of flowers, donations in Gibson’s name may be made to one or more of the following causes: U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, P.O. Box 100, Park City, UT 84060, designated for the US Ski Team Fund; Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA 01342; Harvard Business School, Teele Hall, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163; Williams College, 75 Park St., Williamstown, MA 01267; The DPC Community Foundation, Box 1039, Danville, VA 24543

Memorial services will be held in Pittsfield and Alton. Check www.sascosports.com for dates and locations.