/ In Memoriam /
In Memory of Ed Chase ’69 (1951-2015) Ed’s good friend and college roommate, Tim Etchells penned the following remembrance for Ski Racing Magazine. Tim was Ed’s roommate for three years at Middlebury, and on the ski patrol with Ed. Tim worked as the Head of Communications at Middlebury, and before that, spent two stints editing Middlebury Magazine. He also spent about a dozen years as editor of Ski Racing. The following is a condensed version of a piece written for Ski Racing online.
Ed Chase ’69 and Phil Mahre
Ed Chase, a winter sports industry legend, ski technician for Olympic and World Cup champions, and a Berkshire School alumnus, died on August 17 in Branford, Conn., with family by his side, after a five-year-long battle with cancer. He was 64 years old. Born on April 11, 1951, in Sheffield, Mass., Edward Lance Chase was the only son and youngest of three children of Arthur C. and Alice Ann (Anderson) Chase. Ed’s parents were both faculty members at Berkshire School for 35 years, from 1937 until their retirement in 1973, and gave their name to the annual Arthur C. and Alice Ann Chase Commendation Awards. Arthur Chase was an English teacher and Alice Ann Chase was the school’s librarian. The Chase name also appears on two campus landmarks: Chase House, once home to the Chase family and now to the Berkshire admissions office, and the Arthur Chase Sugar House.
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Berkshire Bulletin
Ed grew up in Sheffield, where everyone called him Eddie, and spent his early years on skis negotiating a rope-tow-equipped slope created by his father. Ed went on to attend Berkshire, graduating in 1969. He then headed to Middlebury College in Vermont, where he was a member of the Class of 1973. There, he played soccer and was on the first formal men’s rugby team at the college. He was a member of the Middlebury College Snow Bowl Ski Patrol and, like many of the other patrollers, joined the Alpha Sigma Psi fraternity, better known as Slug. It was at Middlebury that he got the nickname Sleazy Ed, eventually shortened to Sleez. The ski patrol, and the fraternity, already had an Easy Ed, so Sleazy Ed it was. Tom Beach, a K2 colleague, recalls how Ed became a mentor to a generation of K2 folks. “Without ever getting cranky, he showed us tricks with 8-inch files, Scotchbrite, 220-grit carbide paper and wax that most of us couldn’t have imagined, regardless of our own parochial skiing histories,” Beach said. “He suffered our questions, and opinions, with a generosity of spirit that I suspect marked his whole life. I don’t think we realized how much of a mentor he had become until much later in our lives. Now we’re on our own.” Ed Costie, who worked with Ed on the World Cup circuit, said what made Ed successful was his outlook on life. “Everyone loved Sleez,” Costie said, “and he was comfortable with everyone. He kept everything under control, kept things light, and projected a lot of positive energy.” Ed had a legendary sense of humor, Costie said, and with his height, his big smile and even bigger moustache, he became one of the most recognizable figures on the World Cup circuit. And when the race was over and tomorrow’s skis were ready, Costie said, “After a couple of brews, Sleez would sometimes say, ‘You know, this could turn into something.’ ” Ed is survived by his sister Ann Chase Redman of Branford, Conn.; his son, Peter Robson Chase, of Phoenix, Ariz.; Peter’s mother and Ed’s ex-wife, Lisa Chase, of Gunnison, Colo.; a nephew, Arthur Chase Rhodes; and two nieces, Amanda Elizabeth Wheeler and Jennifer Maria DelVaglio. He had previously lost both parents, Arthur and Ann Chase, and his sister Janet.