C. Allison Merrill

AI Merrill's ski career began at Andover high School where he was a four event skier. On graduation from Hebron Academy he enrolled at the University of New Hampshire where he captained the ski team to three straight Dartmouth Winter Carnival titles in 1941, 42 and 43.

World War II interrupted school and skiing as Merrill served with the 83rd Infantry Division in Europe from 1943 to 1946, earning a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Good Conduct Medal. Graduating from UNH in 1947 he got back into skiing as teacher and coach at Lebanon High.

Merrill earned a place on the U.S. Nordic Team for the 1950 FIS Championships and coached on the U.S. Nordic Team at the 1954 FIS Championships in Falun, Sweden and at the Eighth Olympic Winter Games at Cortina, Italy in 1956.

Next, Merrill became an assistant coach at Dartmouth under Walter Prager and on Prager's retirement in 1957, became the first American born head coach in Dartmouth skiing. He led his team to the National Collegiate Ski Championship that year and over the next twelve years his teams won seven Dartmouth Winter Carnival victories and never finished lower than fourth in the NCAA championships.

In 1970, he was named Dartmouth's Director of Outdoor Affairs and two years later retired as Dartmouth's coach. In this position, Merrill supervised the education¬al use of the 27,000 acre Second College Grant in northern New Hampshire.

While accomplishing many improve¬ments in this area, he also continued his involvement with the Winter Olympics serving as head coach of the U.S. Ski Team from 1963-68 and as the U.S. Ski Association's program director from 1968-70. He was co-chief of course for Nordic in Innsbruck, Austria in 1964 and in 1968 at Grenoble, France. As a member of the FIS International Cross Country Ski Committee, he was named a technical delegate to the Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1972 games at Sapporo, Japan. He was also active in the 1976 games in Innsbruck and the 1980 games at Lake Placid.

Other positions in skiing include President of the U.S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association in 1964, director of both the Eastern Amateur and National Ski Associations, member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Games Committee, the NCAA Ski Rules Committee, and the ski committee of the U.S. Collegiate Sports Council.

In recognition of these and other activities, Merrill was honored in 1972 with the Julius P. Blegen award for out¬standing contributions to U. S. Skiing, and in 1974 was elected to the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame.

After his retirement from Dartmouth in 1983, he continued his ski activities as a member of the FIS Cross Country Committee and the World Cup Commission, and as trustee of the U.S. Ski Educational Foundation.