A legend passes on
Thanks for posting this. I was going to share the story as soon as I had the chance. I didn't know him personally, and no, this wasn't Henry (age 90), but Henry and I have discussed him. Paul's "streak" of 3,903 ski days ended in January, 2005, in his 25th season of skiing
every day that the mountain was open.
A somewhat long but quite worthwhile story of the legend who died on Tuesday. Memorial service is Saturday.
CARRABASSETT VALLEY - Paul Schipper, who skied every day for more than 24 years at Sugarloaf/USA, will soon take his final trip down the mountain.
His ashes will be spread over the ski hill and his sporting camp north of Eustis from the plane of his hunting and fishing buddy, Rich "Crusher" Wilkinson.
Known as "The Ironman of Skiing," Schipper died Monday at Veterans Rehabilitation Center in Bangor. He was 85.
On Tuesday, friends and family members remembered the man who could do anything he set his mind to in any kind of weather.
"He was the last of the Greatest Generation," said Wilkinson, who hauled Schipper up the mountain many times in a groomer when lifts weren't running so he could continue the daily skiing streak.
Schipper's streak of 3,903 consecutive days of skiing when Sugarloaf was open began at the age of 57 in 1981 and ended at the age of 81 on Jan. 4, 2005.
"Paul was a great man who had a zest for life and truly embodied the spirit of Sugarloaf," General Manager John Diller said.
"His passion for skiing and for our mountain has been an inspiration to us all. None of us will ever forget his accomplishments, but more importantly, we will never forget the joy he brought to all who were fortunate enough to meet him.
"He will be greatly missed and our thoughts and prayers go out to Paul's family at this time," Diller said.
Schipper's friend Nancy Marshall of Carrabassett Valley called his death the end of an era. "It's very sad," she said.
Schipper's son Jeff Schipper of Caribou skied Sugarloaf on Tuesday in memory of his dad.
"I wore his season pass today when I skied, so he was out there again today, at least in my mind," Jeff Schipper said.
That passion for Sugarloaf and his streak earned the legend a trail named in his honor - Schipper's Streak, a section of the famous Narrow Gauge Trail.
There, the resort will conduct a small memorial service for Paul Schipper on Saturday morning, said his wife, Christine Schipper, also of Carrabassett Valley.
Both she and Marshall reminisced about how the streak began.
After serving as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot in World War II, Schipper became a commercial pilot with Eastern Airlines.
During the Vietnam War, he flew C-124 Globemaster cargo planes from Tokyo to Vietnam, carrying U.S. Army tanks and trucks in-country and returning with the dead and wounded, his wife said. He also flew missions during the Korean War, but only to European countries.
In 1961, an Eastern Airlines jet that Schipper was flying with only a co-pilot aboard exploded on takeoff, Marshall said. Schipper dove out of the plane and landed on his chest. The impact crushed his heart, so he had a pig's aorta vessel implanted.
The airline later forced him to retire. In 1980-81, the Schippers bought and ran the Lumberjack Lodge where Marshall lived when she moved to Sugarloaf in 1984.
"I think part of the reason he did this streak was sort of to show the airline that he was still healthy and could do this every day," Marshall said.
Christine Schipper said that one day Marshall noticed Paul went skiing every morning and joked, "Oh, you're going for a record," and her husband decided he would.
"I just hope Paul's finding some good slopes to ski, wherever he's gone," Marshall said. "He won't want to just sit around, I know that. I hope there's some fluffy slopes in heaven for him."
(Source:
https://www.sunjournal.com/story/304162-3/Franklin/Ironman_of_skiing_was_war_veteran_great_man/)
