‘Don’t let work get in the way of having a good time’

DAVE MC COY, founder of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, passed away  February 8,  at the age of 104.

Dave was born August 24, 1915, in El Segundo, California, to Edna and Bill ‘Mac’ McCoy.  Mac’s job, improving and paving California State highways in the 1920’s, meant an itinerant childhood for young Dave for whom ‘home’ was in the tent camps that followed the work.  A solid self-reliance developed from the nomadic upbringing.  He spent long days playing in the rural outdoors alone, learned early on the value of a hard day’s work and, out of necessity, perfected the art of making friends with strangers by changing schools, often seasonally, as the work progressed.

The stresses of the Great Depression led to Edna and Mac’s divorce in 1930.  Distraught, his Mom reluctantly sent Dave to live with his paternal grandparents, Bob and Katie Cox, in Wilkeson, Washington.  Here Dave thrived in a settled home, making his mark in high school athletics.  But, his wandering nature led him to hitchhike seasonally back to sunny California to escape the Northwest weather.  A naturally gifted athlete, he would earn letters in football, baseball, basketball and track at high schools in both states.

In 1931, before he’d ever tried skiing, Dave made his first pair of skis in woodshop and was soaring off hand-shoveled jumps by the end of his first day, having heard it was a great way to impress the girls.  Memories of a summer trip, in which he’d fished in pristine alpine lakes ringed by snowfields, left an indelible impression and he pledged then to return.  The day after graduating from high school in Washington, he kept his promise, and rode his motorcycle to Independence, California, where he worked as a soda jerk, did odd jobs and started studying hydrography with an eye on High Sierra fieldwork for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.  He got an early job working on the LA Aqueduct, but once he became certified as a hydrographer, he landed his dream job — skiing and hiking long distances daily to monitor Sierra stream flows and snowpack.

This was when the massive expanse of Mammoth Mountain first caught his eye;  so, too, a young Bishop girl named Roma Carriere.  Their courtship revolved around hiking, fishing in alpine lakes, skiing and dancing.  They married on May 10, 1941, in Yuma, California, settled in Bishop and started a family the next year.

Rope tows were just being conceived then and were mostly jerry-rigged, do-it-yourself jobs with pulleys and ropes attached to a vehicle.  Dave’s mechanical skills, learned from watching and helping his Dad as a child, were perfectly suited to the era, and Dave and Roma started carrying a portable tow in the back of their car, setting it up wherever the snow was best, encouraging friends to join them.

A founding member of the Eastern Sierra Ski Club, as well as the Mammoth Mountain Ski Club and Winter Sports Organization, Dave operated portable tows for years on the North slopes of Mammoth and on McGee Mountain, thirty miles south, for those times when Mammoth was inaccessible due to heavy snows.

When America entered World War II, Dave’s DWP job was deemed ‘essential’ by the US government, denying him his dream to fly missions against the Germans as a Navy pilot.  But, he worked honorably to protect California’s water supply and served soldiers-on-leave by setting up rope tow rides, lessons and equipment, all for free, at his portable tows, all while becoming an avid ski racer and high school ski coach.

Dave was the 1937 California State Slalom Champion at age 22, while coaching the Bishop High Ski Team, and eventually a number of future stars on the international ski-racing scene.

Dave staged many iconic and long-running Eastern Sierra races through a desire to bring the sport to the masses, regardless of ability level.  He founded the Inyo-Mono Championships in 1937, and staged decades of renowned costume party races to celebrate Easter, Memorial Day and the 4^th of July on skis.  A horrific injury, at a downhill race in Sugar Bowl, California in 1942, nearly resulted in amputation of his left leg.  Only multiple experimental surgeries saved his leg and it took years to recover.

In 1953, the Forest Service ceased looking elsewhere for big-money investors to develop Mammoth Mountain and awarded the permit to Dave, who had a reputation for hard work and passionate devotion to the mountain.  The Forest Service trusted that Dave, who could fix any mechanical problem with ingenuity and a smile, would get the job done.  The permit stipulated that Dave improve runs, add food service, provide first aid and build a chairlift.  Dave began construction of Mammoth’s first base lodge that summer.  Chair One, the Eastern Sierra’s first chairlift, was up and running two years later.  Both projects were completed at minimal cost using devoted crews of hard-working friends and locals, aided by volunteers who showed up daily to help the man who had long championed skiing for the community.

Mammoth grew by leaps and bounds over the next thirty years and he purchased June Mountain in l986 with a plan to connect both resorts.  Today Mammoth/June boasts 4 lodges, 3 gondolas and 34 chairlifts……he turned 2 remote mountains into a single, world-class ski resort.

Dave was a self-taught brand of engineer, a true ‘Mr. Wizard’ in ski area technology, and many of his ideas and inventions are still being used in the ski industry today.

He created the Kamikaze Bike Downhill mountain bike descent off Mammoth’s famed Cornice, with a start elevation of 11,053 feet, which continues to attract world-class mountain bikers from all over the globe.

In 1968 he designed, helped build and maintained the Mammoth Motocross Track , which was the site of national and international-level meets.  Dave competed in his last race at the age of 80.

He owned and operated the first commercial airline serving Mammoth, which opened the way for better air service to follow.

Dave’s civic accomplishments were legion.  He helped raise funds to establish the first Mammoth hospital in l978, worked on incorporating Mammoth Lakes as a town in 1984 and in l989 his vision to cultivate higher education and the arts in the Eastern Sierra resulted in the formation of Mammoth Lakes Foundation, which donated the land and help build the area’s first institution of higher learning — Cerro Coso Community College.

Underpinning Dave’s long and storied life is the way he saw almost everything and every person he met in a positive light.  His generosity, efforts and achievements have been acknowledged with many awards through his life, just to name a few:  He has been inducted into the Ski Hall of Fame and Ski Magazine Hall of Fame, Edison honored him with the Southern California Edison Environmental Excellence award, he received the national Ski areas Association Lifetime Achievement Award and was chosen Entrepreneur of the Year of California by Earnest & Young.

After running Mammoth Mountain Ski area for 68 years, Dave sold a major share of Mammoth and June to Intrawest Resort Holdings.  Then in 2005, at the age of 90,  he sold the remainder of his shares to Starwood Capitol Group and retired.  In his retirement, to no one’s surprise, Dave stayed active exploring the Eastern Sierras he loved on his ATV, accompanied by family, friends and his camera.

Dave is survived by the love of his life, Roma Carriere McCoy, with whom he was married for 78 years and their six children:  Gary McCoy (wife Barbi), Dennis ‘Poncho’ McCoy (wife Beverly), Carl McCoy, Penny McCoy, Kandi Stewart (husband Rusty) and Randy McCoy, 19 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

Dave’s family and friends closed many ski races, parties and celebrations by cheering three times the age-old alpine skier’s cheer, which translates simply to ‘Good Skiing’  So, let us close the final chapter of a life well lived by a remarkable man:  Ski Heil!  Ski Heil!  Ski Heil!!

Thank you for your support of our family and your love of Dad over the decades.  We are appreciative of all the good wishes and would recommend that you consider making a donation to Mammoth Lakes Foundation, P. O. Box 1815, Mammoth Lakes, California 93546,  in lieu of flowers.  We are working through this difficult period and have not scheduled a Memorial Ceremony for the community at this time.