The wind was whipping off the Olympic Hopeful race hill at the Utah Olympic Park, the type of bone-chilling cold that alpine ski racing gatekeepers hate. Still, a crowd of athletes, parents, volunteers and friends gathered above the Gamechanger lift to honor a man who transformed sport and changed the lives of thousands of kids in the community.
Bob Marsh held back most of his tears, but not his emotions, as he told the story of sport in Park City over the past five decades through his acknowledgment of others. But as he looked up at the newly christened Bob Marsh Timing Center that bore his name, memories and pride came rushing back.
“I’m humbled,” he said. “I had no idea that I would see this crowd. I didn’t know what to expect. It’s wonderful to be back standing here, even though it’s at the finish line.”
In typical Bob Marsh fashion, he started out by congratulating the competitors who had just wrapped up a day of racing.
Park City Ski & Snowboard, the genesis of the club he led for many years, dedicated the timing center at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center to Marsh to ensure that the next generation of athletes and parents would know his name and what he meant to kids in Park City.
In the early 1970s, Marsh was a young coach with the Park West Ski Team in a community that was just becoming a ski town. The U.S. Ski Team moved to Park City in 1974, as the Park West team came over to join its neighbors to form the Park City Ski Team.
Marsh reminisced about homegrown athletes like Roxanne Toly and Tori Pillinger, who had broken onto the U.S. Ski Team. Later came greats like Ted Ligety. But while they captured the headlines, his greatest pride came from the lessons he instilled into kids — ski racing was just the conduit.
“There were all sort of principles I tried to instill and use as I was coaching,” he said. “Skiing is a byproduct of all the other things you’re going to learn about life. Be on time, be respectful of your teammates, learn how to be responsible at the earliest age, working harder than the next guy — just all shoe basic things.”
To Bob, it was simple — those were the same lessons he learned growing up. But as much as he loved coaching, he saw early on that his purpose in life with the sport was bigger.
“It was so rewarding for me to be one-on-one with that early group of kids — I was with them all the time,” he recalled. “But then I realized that the program needed to do more — raise money, be involved in the community, do community service, and be recognized.”
It was hard for Marsh to leave the hill. But it’s also easy to see that the result of broadening his role in the community on behalf of the team was his greatest accomplishment.
In 1980, he helped start the Park City Ski Educational Foundation, holding a fundraiser at the Black Pearl on Main Street. He found a willing supporter in Jan Peterson, initiating Jan’s Winter Welcome. He worked with the Park City School District to build programs to integrate education with training schedules, even hiring tutors, and eventually leading to today’s Winter Sports School.
“We couldn’t compromise education,” he stated emphatically.
Talking about the Winter Sports School, he paused to recognize Park City Ski Team athlete Steve Holcomb, a Winter School graduate who went on to become an Olympic medalist bobsledder. Holcomb passed in 2017.
“It was the most fun, exciting, and memorable time of my life,” he said. “It’s exciting to see the evolution of the Park City Ski and Snowboard Club, and I’m proud of the work that they are doing. It was a privilege, more than it was a job, to serve and represent so many wonderful people in the early days of racing in Park City.
Marsh smiled as he hugged Stella and Zoe, daughters of Tori Pillinger, who passed in 2017. The two girls grew up in California and were never a part of Marsh’s programs. But they learned his lessons through their mom.
“She talked about him all the time,” they laughed. “‘If you can’t be on time, be early!’ That’s been drilled into our brains ever since we could walk.”