tactical skills for winter conditions. Following the war, Skippy and Meryl skated with Sonja Henie’s ice show. Together, Skippy and Meryl owned and operated the Santa Rosa Ice Arena from 1960-1968. Skippy was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and the PSA Coaches Hall of Fame.
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1940. Still a Canadian citizen, he enlisted in Los Angeles on February 6, 1943 as a Private First Class in the U.S. Army. Following the war, he went back to coaching, becoming a skate school director and the long time manager of the Rochester Institute of Technology Arena in Rochester, NY. Lew served on the Board of the PSA and was a charter member of the ISIA, also serving on their board. During his coaching career, he worked with Robin Lee, Danny Ryan, Jim Sladky, and former USFSA President F. Ritter Shumway. Elected into the PSA Coaches Hall of Fame 2007 he passed away from cancer at age 84 in Atlanta, Georgia in 1989. Both the Genesee FSC and the Atlanta FSC have club dance awards in his honor. Lloyd “Skippy” Baxter and his brother Meryl were both born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and moved to Oakland, California in the late 1920’s. Skippy was a speed skater, and as a single and pair competitor, qualified for the cancelled 1940 Olympics. Meryl began his professional career with Sonja Henie’s ice show in New York City in 1939. He later toured the world with “The Three Rookies,” his slapstick comedy act. World War II interrupted the Baxters’ careers, with both enlisting in the Army in the newly formed 10th Mountain Ski Troops. The 10th trained in high altitudes at Camp Hale, Colorado before being deployed to Northern Italy. Considered the “special forces” of its time, the 10th Mountain Division taught mountaineering, survival and
U.S. Navy Bernard “Babe” Fox was a three time U.S. Pair Champion and 1939 North American Champion with Joan Tozzer. He completed a “back to back” winning in 1935 as a novice and 1936 as a junior. In 1936 he won both singles and pairs. Babe became a Navy Reservist in 1940, completing his training cruise on the New Orleans-class heavy cruiser, USS Quincy (CA-39). A Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, he served from May 1942 to November 1945, and spent the last year deployed in the Mediterranean. A graduate of Harvard, he went on to be a successful Hollywood producer. He died on his birthday, October 6, 1998 at the age of 82. “Sheldon Galbraith was commissioned in the U.S. Naval Air Force in 1942 as a flight instructor. He served until 1945, gaining useful teaching experience and learning various instructional methods that would have a significant influence on his coaching techniques. For example, he later applied the idea of flight simulation to figure skating, allowing his skaters to get the feel for complicated jumps on a trampoline or a spinning device before trying them on ice.” He was the first President of the Professional Skaters Association of Canada (1965) and inducted into the PSA Coaches Hall of Fame in 2003. Edward LeMaire, the 1942 U.S. Jr. Pair Champion, 1943 U.S. Jr. Men’s Champion, and 1943 U.S. Pairs Bronze medalist, was a U.S. Navy Flight Instructor. Mr. LeMaire died on the ill-fated Sabena Flight 548 on his way to the 1961 World Championships. Robin Lee, from St. Paul, MN, was a five-time U.S. Men’s Champion from 1935-1939 and 1936 Olympian. During the Second World War, Robin served on the USS Tolman, a Smith Class destroyer minelayer as a Boatswain’s Mate Second Class. Lee saw action on the Tolman during the Okinawa campaign. In the early morning of March 28, 1945, the Tolman encountered eight Japanese torpedo boats. Defending itself with five inch and 40-millimeter batteries, the Tolman maneuvered to evade the torpedoes. By the end of the engagement, all eight Japanese vessels were destroyed. The following day, the Tolman was credited with shooting down several kamikaze planes. Lee was honorably discharged October 8, 1945, and went on to perform in various professional ice shows like Ice Cycles, a joint production of both Ice Capades and the Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies. He eventually worked as a coach in the Minneapolis area. Inducted into the U.S. Figure
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