On March 16, 2021, we attended a virtual meeting of the Aspen Historical Society, which featured Western State College University’s Dr. Duane Vandenbusche (Colorado’s new state historian) speaking about ski history. Dr. Vandenbusche had been a great help to us when we wrote our second book on the lost areas in central and southern Colorado. During Q&A we asked him if he knew Senior Mahoney. He replied that yes, he was great friends with Billy Mahoney, and that Billy had died recently. We were shocked and saddened to hear it. We later read obituaries online and learned that he died of complications from COVID19 on Friday, January 15, 2021.
Deepest sympathies to the Mahoney family and to friends like Dr. Vandenbusche. (Here is a memorial of Senior Mahoney that was published in his hometown newspaper: Telluride legend Bill ‘Senior’ Mahoney dies | News | telluridenews.com)
Senior Mahoney had also been a great help to us as we wrote that second book. We were able to meet with him for a few hours and interview him in his garage studio in Montrose, which was chock full of ski memorabilia. He was gracious but real (in overalls), and he warned Caryn right up front that he might swear. He gave us permission to use his images as we liked, including films of skiing in the 1930s that he had acquired.
It was a real pleasure to get to meet and talk with Senior that day, and many quotes and much information from him are featured in our second book, including the photo above where he is full of life and enjoying skiing to the hilt. The photo below of him in the powder is one that we did not include in the book.
Chapter 20 on San Miguel County in Lost Ski Areas of Colorado’s Central and Southern Mountains reads, “Bill ‘Senior’ Mahoney was from a longtime mining family and became a shift boss in the Idarado Mine. He was also from a skiing family. In fact, the skis his granddad made and skied on in the 1890s in Bonanza, Colorado—where Mahoney was born—are on display at the Telluride Historical Museum. His family moved to Telluride in 1931, when he was three, and he and his brothers started skiing then.” The subtitle of the chapter describes their early skiing best: “Skiing Everywhere and a Portable Rope Tow.” With his passion for skiing, and as Telluride mining died, Senior later helped create Telluride Ski Area and became its first mountain manager and vice president. What a skiing legacy he leaves!
Farewell, Senior Mahoney. Thanks for sharing your memories with us and with our readers.