Jerry Stansberry, a pioneer of competitive water skiing in Virginia, passed away on Saturday, September 10th. Many of us have much appreciation and gratitude for what Jerry accomplished. Roger Hammel provided the following summary regarding Jerry’s contributions toward our sport.

Virginia Competitive WaterSkiers:

If you are relatively new to VA waterskiing, you may not know Jerry. So this is both a tribute to Jerry and a bit of a history lesson as I remember or know it.

Jerry has been retired from the Virginia and Eastern Region skiing scene for about 5 years, maybe a couple more, electing to become an Emeritus Judge. Before that, Jerry was a very active Senior Judge in our area.

To get a sense of the importance of Jerry to Virginia and Eastern Region waterskiing, you need to go back into the late 50’s and play it forward from there. So lets talk about Jerry and competitive skiing in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and later so everyone gets a sense of who this lady was and her central roles in waterskiing as we know it. It is a wee small history lesson for VA competitive waterskiing, too, focused on Jerry.  Not everyone or every lake is mentioned, as this is a description of Jerry and her roles. You have my apologies for omissions. Continue reading →

Paul Allebach passed away September 19 at his home in Harleysvile, PA, following an extended illness.  He is survived by his wife Sarah, sisters Alice Kolb and Esther Kauffman, brothers Jim and Abe, nieces Nancy Swartout and Kathy Becker, and many other nieces and nephews.

Paul was a member of AWSA for almost 60 years, participating in many local, regional and national tournaments as both a trick skier and a senior driver. He was a member of the Diamond State Water Ski Team, served as chief driver of Nationals and drove several Pan-Am tournaments.  Paul was a member of the AWSA board of directors and chairman of the towboat committee for a number of years.

He also enjoyed many snow skiing trips, visiting new resorts whenever possible.  He followed Philadelphia sports teams and NASCAR.

Read the full obituary at WilliamsBergeyKoffel.com.

Ed accepts the Alan Rossi Award from Bruce Epstein in 2009.

Ed Brazil, a Lifetime Ambassador Member of USA Water Ski & Wake Sports, passed away on Friday, April 26. Brazil, a native of Laconia, NH, was known throughout the water ski world for his work as a technical controller, his contributions to water ski site development, and innovation for all things water ski related.

Skip was a longtime member of the Abenaki Water Ski Club of Wolfeboro and was a ski jumping fixture in their water ski shows for years. He participated in competitive water skiing over four decades, setting the Eastern Regional Jump record in 1992 and 1993. He was a multi-time Eastern US Regional Champion, placed second in the World Masters Games in 1985 in Toronto, and placed third at the US Nationals in 1983. Continue reading →

Very sad news: Stuart Abelson’s wife Betsy died in a snowmobile accident Saturday. The family is requesting privacy. More information when available.

The following obituary was located at the two links at the bottom of this post and is copied here (with slight modification simply to merge the two) because obituary pages are sometimes removed from their websites.

On February 9, 2019, Elizabeth (Betsy) O’Leary Abelson died tragically in a snowmobiling accident in Greenwood, Maine. She was 30 years old. Betsy was due to give birth in March to daughter Brooke Betsy Abelson, who also passed away in the accident. Continue reading →