Orville Slutzky models T-shirt from his 90th birthday celebration.

I recall interviewing Orville for a Ski Magazine piece back in 2007 when he was still working almost-full days at the resort at age 90.  I was told to meet him at 6 am as he started early and quit early. I dragged myself out of bed and was outside his office at 5:54.  Slacker that he was, Orville didn’t show up until 6:04, but with an apology. He was celebrating at his 90th birthday party the night before and went to sleep a bit late. Here’s a photo I snapped that morning.

I feel a personal sadness as Hunter Mountain was where I received my first break in the ski industry back in 1980 when I was hired as photographer for the Hunter Mountain News by the resort’s cigar-chomping public relations maestro Paul Pepe. The pay? A season pass for being Pepe’s photo slave every weekend. It was a sweet deal in my book.

I also met my journalism mentor at Ski Magazine, I. William Berry,  at Hunter Mtn. for the first time at a World Pro Skiing race in fall 1980. I still get melancholy sitting beneath the “Hunter Hall of Fame” he and Izzy founded to honor those who were important to the resort’s development.

The HOF is little more than a series of giant photos atop the cafeteria walls–but they are of many of the seminal figures in my early life in the ski industry including Berry and former Ski and Skiing publishers George Bauer and Harry Kaiser.

RIP, Orville. You will never be forgotten.–Steve Cohen

Here are additional photos of Orville and his perpetually crowded desk and office from that interview.

Snapshot of snapshot in Orville’s office. Cutting a dashing figure in the Sixties at Hunter.

Water pressure gauge for entire town of Hunter water system in Orville’s office. Orville and Izzy had done much of the town’s water system construction and he maintained a close eye on the pressure daily.

Orville at his perpetually cluttered desk. Cluttered but not disorganized. He knew where everything was at all times. It was like a walk back through time. His office hadn’t really changed from the time I first set foot in it back in 1980.

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