Video history of Dick McCrudden, Private First Class, US Army, WW II. This interview, conducted by LtCol Dick Merritt (USMC, Retired) on GrassRoots TV, was part of the Roaring Fork Veterans’ History Project and was recorded October 16, 2007. McCrudden talks about his childhood in New England, skiing and mountain climbing at the age of 4, learning to teach skiing from Hannes Schneider before joining the 10th Mountain Division and teaching skiing to members of the 85th Regiment (service dates: 1943 – 1944). While at Camp Hale, he would come over to Aspen on the weekends to ski, and he came back to Aspen in 1948, then went back east for a few years. When he returned to Aspen, he started working as a ski patrolman on Aspen Mountain, later running the ski schools at Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk and Snowmass. They talk about some of the people in Aspen when McCrudden arrived, including Freddie Fisher, and about McCrudden’s wife Connie whom he married in 1967.

Run time is 54 minutes and 45 seconds.