by R A N DY W Y R ICK
V A I L’ S C H E E R L E A D E R
DICK HAUSERMAN The original Pioneer and Vail’s first permanent resident D
ICK HAUSERMAN WAS
the original Vail local. “I was the first permanent resident of Vail, Colorado. I designed the Vail logo. It’s on everything. It’s on the cover of my book,” Dick said in a video interview. “But I’m very upset,” Dick said with a grin. “They put that logo on every sewer cover in town and now people step on it all day long.” He shook your hand and made a friend for life. “Hi, I’m Dick Hauserman. Welcome to Vail,” he’d say. Dick Hauserman was one of nine children and has
50 nieces and nephews. He kept up with them all. Then he had the very good sense to marry Bobba Paul and embraced a bunch more. He worked at friendships. He was good at his work. Around 1960 Dick was sailing on Lake Erie when he told nephew Lee Howley all about Vail.
“I’m going to sell the boat and everything else, and build the biggest and best ski resort Before there wa s GoPro this. This brav the world has ever e young ma,nthere were rigs like and battery to str his helmet an apped a camera d hit the slope seen,” Dick told the s. young Howley. Howley was young. $5,000 each to help get things Hauserman was not. Hauserstarted. That was December, man was in his 40s when he 1959. By the next winter they sold everything and had a hut at the top of the gave himself to Vail. mountain, a snowcat Earl Vail gave itself to Eaton built and a dream. him. The love affair Billy Paul, from Bobba’s lasted a lifetime. side of the family, said what Before Vail, Peter everyone feels about Dick, that Seibert asked 20 he made everyone around him people to put up feel like the most important person in the world. “He was the most inclusive man I ever met,” Paul said. “His love was boundless.” In Dick’s waning days, he and Paul found themselves alone in Dick’s hospital room for a few moments. Dick turned to Paul and through his oxygen mask said, “Did I ever tell you about how we started Vail?” and started to tell the story the same way he always did ... like it was the first time. It’s a great story. It’s Dick’s story. In 1960, Dick Hauserman cross-country skied on the site that would eventually become the Vail Golf Course. Known as Vail’s first resident, Dick liked to personally welcome people to town.
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VAIL 50TH ANNIVERSARY G 2 012 K E E P S A K E E D I T I O N
P H OTO S C O U R T E S Y H AU S E R M A N A R C H I V E S