The Peripatetic "Silver Fox"

A tribute to Dartmouth ski coach and outdoorsman Al Merrill

It seems an appropriate time to talk with and about Al Merrill, who retired this past November after 27 years of service to the College 15 years as Dartmouth ski coach and the final 12 years as the first director of the Out-door Affairs office. Merrill's retirement comes also at a time when the renowned Dartmouth Outing Club observes its 75th anniversary and the winter Olympic games with a strong Dartmouth contingent are going on in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

Unfortunately, Merrill will miss going to the Olympic games this winter; he has attended and been an official at the past seven winter Olympics starting in 1956 at Cortina, Italy. 'l'll miss it, of course," admits Merrill, "but if you don't have some function, there's not much purpose in being there, especially with today's excellent TV coverage." Merrill has other things on his mind as well; as soon as the Olympic games end, he's headed to Sweden to officiate an international ski meet.

"We do expect a number of Dartmouth skiers competing at Sarajevo, although some of the final team selections won't be made until February," he reported. "We hope to have Tiger Shaw '85 in the Alpine events, and we expect to have two ski jumpers Dennis McGrane, a junior at Dartmouth, and Landis Arnold, who just graduated - in the thick of things. Then we have Tim Caldwell '75 in cross-country and possibly three biathlon competitors in Don Nielsen '74, Willie Carow '80, and Glen Eberle '85."

When we caught up with Al Merrill on a cold Monday morning after Christmas, his thoughts were focused on the immediate winter days ahead and on his concern for the future role of skiing and outdoor programs at Dartmouth. Merrill had spent much of December at Lake Placid helping with the competitions which are used in fielding the U.S. Nordic and Jumping teams. On that same Monday, he was on his way back to Lake Placid for three more weeks prior to the final selection of the U.S. teams.

"I felt it was a real jolt to intercollegiate skiing competition when the NCAA dropped ski jumping from competition," Merrill said, but then added, "However, we've been able to keep ski jumping going at Dartmouth. We still have a competition at the Dartmouth Winter Carnival and we have ski jumpers on our squad we're the only college in the country that still does."

Merrill's commitment to four-event skiing obviously stems from his background in the sport. He first started to ski as a youngster in Andover, Maine, and then went on to skiing competition at Hebron Academy and the University of New Hampshire. With him on the team, UNH captured three consecutive Dartmouth Winter Carnival titles in the early forties.

Like many of his generation, Al took time out from his college career to serve in the war, landing with combat troops a few days after D-Day and then fighting across Europe. He returned to finish his studies, graduating in 1947 and going on to teach and coach skiing at nearby Lebanon High School for almost a decade before starting his Dartmouth career.

Merrill is enthusiastic about women at Dartmouth, emphasizing that they have made a "very significant" contribution to both skiing and to the College's outdoor programs. "It was important for Dartmouth to have a strong women's ski team with its own identity," Merrill told us, "and we've had good administrative support in financing so that our women's teams have been able to compete with an almost identical schedule to that of the men." Dartmouth women won the first AIAW skiing championships at Stowe in 1976, and since then they have been rated on a par with the usual powerhouse skiing teams such as Middlebury and the universities of Vermont, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The introduction of coeducation and women's skiing at Dartmouth in 1972 also brought Al Merrill a new wife Pam Reed, a Middlebury College skier who became the first women's ski coach at Dartmouth and some four years later married Al. Pam left her coaching job at Dartmouth several years ago to go into the real estate business. She and Al now reside in a recently-constructed home high atop a hill outside Lebanon.

The world of international skiing has been a major part of Al Merrill's life and career for well over 30 years. While teaching and coaching at Lebanon High, he was a member of the FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) Nordic team, and in 1954 he served as cross-country and Nordic combined coach for the U.S. teams competing at the world championships in Sweden. He then went on to coach the U.S. cross-country and Nordic combined teams for the 1956 winter Olympic games in Cortina, Italy and subsequently was involved with every winter Olympic games through the 1980 Lake Placid events. He was also a top Nordic ski coach for the U.S. international teams from 1963 through 1968 and was program director for 1968-70. A former president of the Eastern Ski Association, Merrill is also a longstanding member of the NCAA ski rules committee. In 1974 his years of service were recognized through his induction into the Ski Hall of Fame. Currently, Merrill remains a member of the FIS cross-country committee, serves on the World Cup commission, is a vice president for Nordic skiing for the U.S. Ski Association, and a trustee of the U.S. Ski Educational Foundation.

Some say that Merrill got the nickname the "Silver Fox" as his hair gradually became streaked with silver and gray, and others claim that members of the U.S. national cross-country team chose that nickname because of his uncanny ability to advise them on exactly the right kind of wax to use prior to a major race. Take your choice.

It's ironic but perhaps understandable that the Silver Fox is probably better known and appreciated in international skiing than he is in his own back yard. A quiet, unassuming, and steady kind of man, Al has neither the time nor inclination for politicking or partying. "He's the nicest person and best boss I've ever had," says Midge Crooker, who's been working as Al's secretary for the past decade. Midge emphasizes Al's strong sense of organization and his willingness to turn over direct responsibilities to coaches and other associates, while at the same time always being there to back them up if they need support.

Although Merrill's duties have been primarily administrative since he became Director of Outdoor Affairs at the College in 1972, Mrs. Crooker points out that Al has spent a great deal of his time voluntarily helping the women's Nordic team and more recently with what is called the "development team." Anyone attending Dartmouth can go out for the ski team, but competition is understandably stiff, so a number of undergraduates simply can't qualify. In recent years, these skiers have been able to continue their training on the development team, and a few of them eventually wind up managing to get into competition at one of the carnival meets so they can win their letter by senior year. In some ways, Midge Crooker believes, Merrill's patient tutelage of the undergraduates on the development team is one side of his career which has been especially meaningful to Al and the Dartmouth students.

But in the long run, it may well be Al Merrill's strong leadership and energetic contributions as Dartmouth's first Director of Outdoor Affairs which will keep him in the hearts and minds of Dartmouth's outdoor fellowship. It is this office which has responsibility for the 27,000-acre College Grant located in northern New Hampshire and the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and adjoining facilities, along with a variety of recreational programs connected with Dartmouth's traditional outdoors emphasis. That office and Al Merrill have a close working relationship with the Dartmouth Outing Club, formerly headed by executive director John Rand '38 and more recently by Earl Jette.

When we first began to chat with Merrill about the outdoor area, he showed us with some satisfaction the advertisement the College was running in seeking Merrill's replacement. It was for a "Director of Outdoor Programs," which Merrill guessed was a little better than "Outdoor Affairs." But the job description pretty well parallels the administrative responsibilities which Al had held, and to some extent followed the recommendations which he passed along to Dean Ed Shanahan.

"We are really dealing with the entire Dartmouth community. The Outing Club is geared to the undergraduates, so it's natural for this office (Outdoor Affairs) to focus on the needs of the larger Dartmouth community students, alumni, faculty, administration, and their friends. These outdoor and recreational programs keep a bond between those with these specialized interests and the College."

Merrill is probably at his most eloquent when he talks about these programs. "A lot of Dartmouth people had their first association with the outdoors when they were undergraduates, so the outdoors has a real meaning to them. It creates a strong bond between these particular people and their college, and it's the kind of bond which a community-oriented outdoor programs office can help nurture and strengthen."

Before he stepped out of office last November, he made a particular point to take the newly-appointed Dean Shanahan on a tour of College properties both at Moosilauke and the College Grant, emphasizing the major improvements which had been made recently and the central role which the Ravine Lodge plays in Dartmouth's outdoor programs. At the College Grant, Merrill made the distinction between the cabins administered by the Outdoor Affairs Director and generally utilized by alumni, parents, and friends of the College, in contrast to those cabins which are operated by the Dartmouth Outing Club and are primarily reserved for undergraduate use. Subsequently Merrill outlined his recommendations and the philosophy behind them in a detailed report to Shanahan. He proposed that the same general operating format be retained by the Office of Outdoor Affairs, or Outdoor Programs as it is now called, and that more specific authority be given for the initiation of outdoor recreational and educational programs, with additional personnel engaged on a fullor part-time basis to implement and supervise these programs. In his report, Merrill also continued to make a clear distinction between the programs and responsiblities of the Dartmouth Outing Club and the Outdoor Programs Office. He strongly advocated that competitive skiing be retained under the Director of Outdoor Programs, rather than the DCAC. He further proposed that the two ski schools currently being operated (one at the Dartmouth Skiway for community members, the other conducted by the Outing Club for undergraduates) be merged under one director so that more effective ski training could be provided to all members of the Hanover community.

Despite his world travels, the Silver Fox said he has enjoyed most of all the opportunity of slipping away from Hanover and heading up north to spend a few days roaming the College Grant. There, especially in the summer, he supervises and works with the Dartmouth crews who spend each summer renovating cabins and occasionally erecting new ones. "Al's a roll-up-the-sleeves kind of man" says Midge Crooker. "He feels that the best way to teach is to work directly with people, showing them what to do and then letting them try it themselves."

When not at the Grant, Merrill can be found at the Ravine Lodge, again working with the students who operate Moosilauke each summer as a facility for visiting alumni, friends, and north country visitors. Al is justly proud of the extensive renovations that have been made in recent years to Moosilauke, and the fact that it is increasingly becoming one of the central facilities for many of the College's out-door programs.

Following Merrill's retirement last fall, there appeared in a special edition of the Friends of Dartmouth Skiing bulletin several special tributes by a number of Merrill's proteges, students, and associates. It was full of warmth and admiration and respect for a remarkable human being; a document which attests to the mark he has made on many of the people he has known.

"Time passes, people and values change." Merrill spoke reflectively as he stirred a steaming cup of coffee that cold December morning. "Certainly skiing is becoming somewhat more professional in terms of the time required to compete internationally. The season which used to be three or four months long now extends practically the whole year round, with even plastic matting for jumping in the summertime! Cross-country skiers go onto the European glaciers in early fall, so there's almost a year-round training process."

For a few minutes the morning of our interview, A 1 reminisced about some of the nationally and internationally recognized Dartmouth skiers whom he has coached over the years. But in so doing, he paid tribute to two other great Dartmouth ski coaches who preceded him Otto Schniebs, who coached in the late twenties and early thirties, and Walter Prager, who coached for 20 years from 1937 to 1957 with a couple of years out during WWII to serve with the 10th Mountain Division.

"I feel very fortunate in having been associated with Walt Prager during his final year as varsity ski coach when we had two Olympic standouts skiing for Dartmouth Chick Igaya '57 and Ralph Miller '58." Reflecting over his years'as head ski coach, Merrill mentioned, among others, Dave Currier '74, Tim Caldwell '75, Jim Page '63, Scott Berry '71, Teyck Week '71, and Eddie Williams '64.

Between other assignments, Merrill is now working on an article for a special souvenir dinner program which is being published in connection with the "Wearers of the Green" dinner in Boston on April 27 to honor all Dartmouth Olympic, All-American, team captains, and other distinguished alumni who have made contributions to Dartmouth sports.

Dean Shanahan, responsive to some of the concerns expressed by Merrill, was most optimistic about the future of outdoor programs at Dartmouth. "Right now we're in the middle of a search for a new Director of Outdoor Programs and we have a strong pool of applicants," Shanahan reported. "I think you'll find that almost all of the recommendations Al Merrill detailed in his report last summer are being, or will soon be, implemented." Shanahan added, "We do plan to develop more sophisticated kinds of educational Programs oriented to the outdoors through the Outing Club and on a broader campus-wide basis." Shanahan's personal enthusiasm for the outdoor opportunities at Dartmouth is clearly apparent as he talks. "We've got a real outdoor 'Garden of Eden' right here in the north country," he told us, "and we plan to provide more opportunities for our students to participate in the available programs and facilities." Additional funding through gifts and grants is now being sought, he reported, to assure adequate financing for the expanded program.

As Merrill headed back to Lake Placid, we began to think about all he had told us. The times, people, and values change, he had said, but he had also reminded us of the importance of "place" in the Dartmouth equation. The Dead Diamond River still meanders through the College Grant to join its waters with the Swift Diamond, the carriage road winds uphill to the scarred summit of Mt. Moosilauke, and as we write this from our office, we can see Dartmouth students clacking past our windows with skis over their shoulders headed for the Dartmouth Skiway or for an afternoon of ski touring across the fields and hills just outside Hanover. New generations of Dartmouth students are finding for themselves the joys and meaning of those outdoor traditions which have been an integral part of the place we call Dartmouth.

The Silver Fox chats with President emeritus John Sloan Dickey '29 at the dedicationof the John Dickey Scenic Area at the College Grant while in the background, GeorgeColton '35 snaps a shot of Gil Tanis '38 who seems a bit frustrated reloading hiscamera.

Then-Assistant Coach Merrill checks outthe hill with his boss, Dartmouth SkiCoach Walter Prager in this 1956 photo.