Remembering Doug Bledsoe

By Harriet Wallis

Alta is more than a ski area. It's a family. Even though we don't all know each other, the family is bonded by blue skies, sparkling snow, and the skiers we've come to know over many years. We look for their smiles. We enjoy the stories they tell about the early years. And as time passes, we sense when someone is missing from the Alta family. So it is with Doug Bledsoe. He was one of Alta's cherished patriarchs.

Doug's daughter, Heather Dawn, and son-in-law wrote this lovely piece.

Douglas Lawrence Bledsoe

August 7, 1931 – December 22, 2019

The license plate on his Porsche read “WOB,” and stood for the “Wild Old Bunch,” a gang of 80 year-old skiers that would tear up the slopes of Alta, Utah—if you could call one or two runs a day then long talks and hot drinks in the lodge "tearing it up." But, then again, any amount of ski runs when you’re over 80 is pretty epic. There were only two things Doug loved more than skiing at Alta, so let’s start at the beginning.

Doug was born Douglas Lawrence Bledsoe on August 7, 1931 in Southern California during the great depression. He grew up frugally, worked and played in the orange groves, that today have been paved over by the streets of Los Angeles.

As part of the generation that set the tone for America after World War II, (you know, the ones who didn’t expect a participation trophy), he joined the Navy in 1951 and served until 1955. After the Navy, Doug went to San Diego State University. He was an early adopter of vitamins and fitness and built an impressive physique. It didn’t stop him from pursuing his studies and he soon earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Doug landed his first big job out of college at General Dynamics where he worked on projects including; the Atlas Missile, Lunar Lander and the Project Mercury Space Program.

His second job was at Aeronutronic, and that’s where Doug discovered the first thing he loved more than skiing— Diane McCollum. It was 1967, the Summer of Love, and Doug and Diane fell for each other fast. She was smart, beautiful and adventurous, and they would spend the next 50 years of their lives together.

In 1970, it would take all of Doug’s aeronautical expertise to navigate a new opportunity in the thin air of Alta, Utah. Doug and Diane took over the Alpenglow Restaurant, mid-way up the ski mountain and operated it successfully for the next 27 years.

Three years after moving to Alta, Doug would discover his second love—Heather Dawn was born in January of 1973. He loved his only daughter and was a role model father. Early mornings in the snow cat down the mountain to the parking lot, switch to the car and down the canyon to school, then back up to run the restaurant, and yet back again at the end of the day to bring his daughter all the way back home. That’s true love.

As you would expect running a restaurant at a ski resort, summers were a little slow. After maintenance was done, Doug would take his family and explore the world. They traveled across the US and much of Europe in a motorhome—Doug’s first choice for often taking the road less traveled. And, it may have been on one of their adventures thru Germany that Doug, as a true Aeronautical Engineer, fell in love with Porsches. He purchased many over the years, including a 1962 356hardtop, a bright yellow Turbo (just used for the track, as one does), and his last Porsche, a 911S at 87 years old. He was a member of the Porsche Club of America and loved their road trips and track days—he built friendships that lasted his lifetime.

So, here we are, back where we started—that Porsche “WOB” license plate. It sits on the back of his car missing him. Wishing it could feel him slide into its soft leather seat, feel his foot on the gas, the roar of the engine and the twist and turns in the road. Those who knew him and loved him feel the same. We’ll miss him. Diane and Heather will miss him most. Wishing for one more touch, one more smile, and that stoic, unfaltering strength that helped them navigate the twist and turns of life.

Whatever Heaven's like, we hope there’s Porsches and skiing. And snow, lots of snow.