Albert W. Currier

ALBERT W. 'BILL' CURRIER, 89, of Stearns Road, Rindge, died Saturday July 26, 2008 at the Good Shepherd Care Center in Jaffrey following a period of failing health.
 
He was born on July 31, 1918 in Newton, MA, the son of Arthur L. Currier and Bertha C. (Partenheimer) Currier.  As an infant he came to New Ipswich, N.H. in August that year and lived most of his life in New Hampshire.
 
A graduate of Worcester Academy, he attended Nichols College.  From 1940 to 1945 he was employed at the Watertown Arsenal as a machinist and an instructor in Boston and afterwards he taught ski patrol winter first aid in New Hampshire.
 
He operated a machine shop in New Ipswich for over 55 years, much of the work related to building fiber rope ski tows and doing ski lift alterations and repairs.  A ski patroller since 1943, National Ski Patroller #464, he was the first ski patroller and ski instructor at Temple Mountain Ski Area where he met his wife, June, in 1945.  She joined him in various business endeavors including ski instructing, operating their retail ski shop, fiber rope splicing on ski tows throughout New England, ski area safety inspections and ski life cable inspections and the sale, engineering, and installation of used ski lifts.
 
Long before there were ski lifts he began skiing in 1924 and taught himself to turn and ski jump.  From 1939 until 1993 he enjoyed the challenge of climbing and skiing the gullies and snowfields of Mt. Washington, occasionally accompanied by his wife and friends.  June and Bill shared many happy hours skiing and mountain climbing.  They had climbed most of the 4000-foot peeks in the White Mountains.
 
In 1957 he was appointed to the original New Hampshire Passenger Tramway Safety Board, the first such authority in the United States, which wrote ski lift code regulations for tramway safety.  Serving on this board for over 20 years as secretary and chairman, at times he was the state lift inspector.  He was also a member of the ANSI B77 Committee, which developed the national standards for safety requirements of ski lifts.   In that capacity he was chairman of the sub-committee of surface lifts and rope tows for several years.  In 1993 the New Hampshire Ski Area Operators Association presented him with the H.H. Bill Whitney award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the sport of alpine skiing in the State of New Hampshire.
 
He served the Town of New Ipswich on various committees, as a selectman, firefighter and deputy forest fire warden, before becoming a resident of Rindge in the early 1980s.
 
His beloved wife, June, died in 1998.  He is survived by his son, Roger L. Currier and wife Sue of Greenville Junction, Maine, his daughter Linda E. Horne of Jacksonville, Florida, a granddaughter Jenny Kass and her husband Ken of Antrim, NH, a granddaughter Sara Currier of Buxton, Maine, and a grandson Robert Horne and his son Alex of Jacksonville, Florida.

Burial will be at the Cathedral of the Pines, Rindge.

As per his request, there will be no calling hours.

A celebration of his life will be held this autumn.