Billy Kidd Leads Class of ’06 into VT Hall of Fame

Billy Kidd, 1964 Olympic slalom silver medalist, joins 1960 Olympic slalom silver medalist Betsy Snite Riley, plus former U.S. champion Marilyn Shaw McMahon, and ski academy pioneer Warren Witherell as inductees into the Vermont Ski Museum Hall of Fame.

Kidd, a Stowe native, who was also was the combined gold medalist and slalom bronze medalist at the 1970 World Championships, was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, MI, in 1976.

Warren Witherell headed the Burke Mountain Academy until 1984 and currently is involved at Crested Butte Academy in Colorado.

Betsy Snite grew up in the renowned Ford Sayre ski program and later owned a ski shop in Stowe. She died in 1984. A two-time Olympian, she also was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1976.

Marilyn Shaw, another Stowe native, was the U.S. combined champion in 1940 at age 15 and was the slalom gold medalist a year later at the U.S. Championships in Aspen, CO. She was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1986 and died in 1989.

Roland Palmedo, who helped get Stowe's ski area started and then founded Mad River Glen, and Perry Merrill, who helped drive the growth of skiing in Vermont as head of the Vermont Division of Forests and Parks for 37 years will also be added posthumously.