Robert "Stub" Taylor

Robert "Stub" Taylor devoted his entire working life to Sugarloaf and Maine skiing. His involvement with Sugarloaf actually started as a student at Kingfield High when he joined Amos Winter and a group of his school mates to ski Bigelow in the forties. When the construction of Long Falls Dam in 1947 created Flagstaff Lake, their access was cut off and the Bigelow Boys looked across the valley at the snowfield capped mountain and decided to switch their skiing to Sugarloaf.

Stub Taylor helped cut Winter's Way and in 1953 when the Sugarloaf Ski Club was formed and a rope tow installed he became the fledgling ski area's first employee. His first job was to sweep the clubhouse and run the rope tow on weekends.

In 1953 the first T-bar was installed and Taylor became a full time employee and the area's first ski patrolman, joining the National ski Patrol. To get his first aid training he had to travel to Portland and when the patrol started adding members Stub took them to Portland for annual refresher training. To end that travel he got his own instructor rating and the training took place at Sugarloaf.

He led his patrol by example, passing the Senior exam in 1957, and in 1958 joined the new Professional Ski Patrol Association, an organization made up only of paid professional patrollers. In 1959 he was awarded a National Appointment receiving the number 2261, an honor given only to outstanding members of the National Ski Patrol. Taylor was certified (The highest . level) by both organizations and served as an examiner for both.

In 1977 the National Ski Patrol recognized Stub as the Patroller of the Year, an honor also accorded him by PSPA.

Starting with an eight hour basic first aid course in the fifties, Taylor has led the way for his patrol through upgrades in Red Cross First Aid to 60 hours and now to the NSPS Winter Emergency Care program. He was also one of the first Maine Patrollers to go the extra mile to become a fully qualified Emergency Medical Technician and many of his patrollers followed him on that path.

As the first full time employee of the area, Stub Taylor spent his winters looking after the safety of the skiers. Summers were spent cutting trails, building lifts and performing other duties as Sugarloaf expanded from a small ski area to one of the East's premier ski resorts.

While management changes over the years sometimes listed others as being in charge, from the day he put on a first aid belt, to his retirement in 1996, Stub Taylor ran the Sugarloaf Ski Patrol. He was a key part of making ski patrolling a highly professional occupation in Maine and around the nation. His impact on Maine skiing extends to every trail at Sugarloaf and to hundreds of patrollers at other Maine ski areas. It is for this contribution to Maine skiing, that Robert "Stub" Taylor has earned a place as the first ski patrolman to be inducted into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame