GLEN T. SMITH: A GREAT LEADER, MENTOR, INNOVATOR AND FRIEND

Glen T Smith passed on June 7, 2021.  He will be greatly missed as a leader, friend, husband, mentor, innovator and all around wonderful man.  He was a man of substantial abilities. He began at General Motors directly out of high school in a training program and rose to the level of Vice-President by the time he retired.  He then focused on a career as a ski instructor that had begun while still working at GM.  He came to the west coast by way of Michigan where he was an Alpine Examiner in the Central Division.  Once he started at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe he became a leader in Adaptive instruction, adding an L3 in Adaptive to his L3 in Alpine.

When you met Glen you were always greeted with a warm, sincere smile and an incredibly helpful approach. His knowledge was vast and his willingness to accept change in the industry was both innovative and refreshing.  Glen was one of the first people on the Adaptive Examiner team to embrace Snowboarding as part of the Adaptive Snowsports certification process.  His exam style has influenced every adaptive certified snowboarder on the west coast since.  He had a similar impact on the Alpine side of Adaptive as well. His exam style spoke to his engineering background but also to his love of life and love of snowsports.  He had the most amazing concept of time management, fitting in many difficult exam processes and still finding time to have fun in his list of criteria for the exam.

During his time in the PSIA-AASI Western Division he was a great leader, innovator, instructor, clinician, trainer, examiner and served as the Adaptive Committee Chairperson for many years.  He rewrote the study guide for adaptive certification and produced a handy pocket size spreadsheet based reference guide for disabilities and red flags. I still have mine and encourage candidates to print out their own copies.

He influenced many people outside of the snowsports industry including his long time dedication to his church and neighborhood leadership.  He will be sorely missed across a great spectrum of the people he knew throughout his life.  He is survived by his loving wife of 53 years, Barbara.

We will miss him.

-Brent Kuemmerle on behalf of the Adaptive Task Force and Examiners.