Friends, family and supporters gathered at the Stein Eriksen Lodge on Wednesday to remember the man behind it all, Stein Eriksen, on what would have been his 97th birthday.
Stein Eriksen was a pioneer in skiing and in the foundation of Deer Valley. Eriksen passed away in 2015, leaving a legacy of kindness, entrepreneurship, and community, said Stein Collection CEO Russ Olsen, who gave a toast in his honor.
“He’s been missed every day since that time. What a wonderful man, and today we are here to celebrate him,” said Olsen.
Friends and family told stories of Stein’s charisma and personality, and brought together those who continue to enjoy his namesake at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in a tribute to his legacy.
Eriksen was born in Norway. His father, Marius, a ski maker and Olympian, and his mother, Brigit, designed iconic ski sweaters worn by many in the crowd in the lobby on Wednesday.
Inspired by his older brother, a war hero and role model, Eriksen embraced skiing with the same passion that shaped his family’s legacy. His dedication bore fruit on the global stage: In 1952, he won an Olympic gold and silver in his hometown of Oslo, and two years later, he made history by earning three gold medals at the World Championships in Åre, Sweden.
“It was an amazing accomplishment. He was the first to ever do that,” said Tom Kelly, a friend of Eriksen, historian and Olympic spokesperson.
“He was known as the father of freestyle skiing,” said Olsen. “Every Sunday, wherever he was skiing, he would do a flip, an amazing flip. People would gather and wait for him to come gracefully down the hill.”
The groups laughed as Olsen brought up Eriksen’s resistance to wearing a ski helmet.
“How would you put a helmet over that beautiful hair? And he would not wear a helmet, as much as Francoise tried,” said Olsen.
Eriksen moved up in the ski world throughout the 1950s, and was influential in growing the sport in the United States.
“It was a time when skiing was on the cover of magazines worldwide,” said Kelly. “Stein took up an invitation to work as instructors and mountain ambassadors at Sun Valley.”
Eriksen and other friends from Europe led the charge of skiing across the United States, working in Michigan, Vermont, Idaho, California, Colorado, Utah and beyond. Kelly listed just a few of his recognitions for his efforts in the sport: Eriksen was knighted by the King of Norway, inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, the professional ski instructors of America Hall of Fame, earned the Utah State Sports Award and the World Ski Award.
On a tour at Deer Valley decades ago, Eriksen took one look at the space that would become his namesake and declared, “Wouldn’t this be a wonderful place for a Stein Erisken Lodge? And thus Stein Eriksen lodge came to be,” recalled Olsen.
The Stein Eriksen Lodge opened in December 1982, and has opened its doors to skiers every day since.
“He was proud of this place, and he was proud of the employees who worked here, the services, the memories that each one of our employees provided,” said Olsen. “‘And remember my name is on the front door,’ he’d always say.”
“History is the roadmap to the future,” said Kelly, reflecting on the roadmap the Eriksen paved for Park City, Deer Valley and the future of skiing. “Stein had great influence in this community, and what was really near and dear to his heart was the influence that he could have on young people.”
Stein Eriksen and Jim Gaddis first met while racing for the U.S. Ski Team together.
“I’ll tell you what, he was not a lot of fun to ski with,” said Gaddis. “Because he would stop and talk to everybody!”
A familiar greeting from Eriksen: “I’m Stein Eriksen, and it’s a pleasure for you to meet me.”
“Stein always wanted to help kids. That was one thing he wanted to do,” remembered Gaddis. “Stein and I got together with the Youth Sports Alliance, and Stein and I wanted to raise some money in an endowment to help kids in their endeavors to be competitive spheres of some sort.
In their first year, Eriksen and Gaddis raised $2 million for the endowment in Eriksen’s name. In the time since, the Stein Eriksen Dare to Dream endowment has grown to $3.7 million.
“We started raising money about a year before he passed away,” said Gaddis. “And we completed the goal just before that in 2015. There’s a lot of people up here that need help, and they can make an application to the Youth Sports Alliance, and if they qualify, we will give them a scholarship for whatever it is they need.”
The celebration closed with a presentation of Eriksen’s favorite drinking song, Helan Går, which roughly translates to “the whole thing goes, or you don’t deserve the half,'” according to Bjorn Eriksen, his son.
“It’s a Swedish drinking song, actually, but I think it was adapted into Norwegian a few times with my father and his friends over the years,” said Bjorn, who led the group in song, toasting “Skol!” to his father’s memory.
