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
