Watson wins 2018 Snowsports Builder Award

Innovative and brilliant. A founder of ski clubs. Creator of multiple programs and recognition awards on all levels of snowsport – club, council, Far West Ski Association, U.S. Ski Association, U.S. Recreational Ski Association, and Far West Ski Foundation – spanning over five decades of dedicated volunteerism.

John Watson of Fallbrook is a deserving recipient of the 2018 Snowsports Builder Award.

Since joining the Single Ski Club of Los Angeles in 1966 and until the present, Watson's depth of volunteer efforts and the impact on the organizations which benefited from his leadership and expertise is unparalleled in snowsport history.

As president of Southern Council (now Los Angeles Council of Ski Clubs), Watson set up a mirror image of FWSA programs at the council level in 1969. He was a co-founder of the Mineral King Ski Club and the Single Ski Club of Orange County. He launched the office of VP of Councils in 1970, a continuing viable, important office on the FWSA board of directors. He served as FWSA president from 1971-73 and was a trustee from 1971-76. He created many of the FWSA service awards that have recognized so many worthy volunteers for a half century.

In 1988 he served as FWSA vice president of public affairs, planning and conducting the Eastern Sierra Site Survey. This skier reconnaissance addressed the Sherwin Mountains and the ridges northward from Mammoth Mountain to San Joaquin Mountain. An engineer and geologist with master's degrees and a minor in history, Watson launched the History Committee in 2003 and instituted the Historic Ski Club Program in 2010.

On the national level, Watson was a director of USSA and a vice president of the USSA Sports Division. He founded the Councils Committee and Long Range Planning Committees, assisted Bill Berry with the National Ski Hall of Fame Committee (wrote the first hall rules for governance), and set up the Citizen Racing Committee and program.

Watson founded USSA Ski Week in 1969 and chaired the ski week for several years, setting up the initial menu of activities within ski week, including both the Alpine Council Challenge Cup and Nordic Challenge Cup. He became known as the "father of ski week" within USSA.

Most notable of recent accomplishments was Watson's reanimation in 2009 of the Far West Ski Foundation (established 1964). He serves in this version as its first and only president. He spearheaded the expansion of the foundation's mission and goals, including FWSF fund raising for the FWSA scholarship program, enabling the disabled through on- snow rehabilitation, support for ski museums and support for women's ski jumping competition.

The FWSA Snowsports Builder Award is given to an individual who has made an indelible positive impact on snowsport. Watson embodies the spirit of this award and it is very appropriate that he is recognized with it.