Obituaries : Sunday, February 26, 2000

by Carole Beers
Seattle Times staff reporter

Mr. Moffett died yesterday morning (Feb. 26) of the effects of a stroke he suffered New Year's Eve. He was 91.

The Snoqualmie ski operations, for decades run by the Moffett family's Ski Lifts Inc., was one of the first commercially operated snow-sports areas in the Northwest.

Several generations of skiers attended ski schools or rented equipment there. It was among the first facilities to offer night skiing and multiple ski areas.

Mr. Moffett also was instrumental in the founding of the SKIFORALL Foundation ski school for disabled people.

"It's a tough loss," said John Hight, who in 1938 helped found the Ski Patrol at Snoqualmie. "He was probably one of the nicest owners ever to run a ski area."

The area still is home to competition and hobby skiers, snowboarders, the Ski Patrol, ski schools, rentals and related activities.

"It was a pleasure for me as manager the past 20 years to have for an example my father," said Dave Moffett of Mercer Island.

Mr. Moffett, active in the business until 1996 when he and his family sold the operation, had the early vision to make it all happen. Moreover, he kept at it through good and bad snow years.

He had a say in the opening of schools and dining facilities, oversaw the building of lodges and resort cabins, and had his own chalet at Snoqualmie for decades.

Last year he was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame.

"He was an incredible man with incredible foresight," said Lou Lenihan, former vice president and marketing director of Ski Lifts.

"When World War II broke out, he saw gas rationing as a factor in the success of ski areas. Since Snoqualmie was only an hour from Seattle, he closed his rope tows at other passes and concentrated on that one."

Mr. Moffett became addicted to skiing by sliding down the inclines of a golf course in his native New Rochelle, N.Y. He earned a civil-engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., in 1931. Seeking work, he drove a Model A Ford to Seattle.

Impressed with Mount Rainier and the popularity of skiing at its Paradise Inn, he decided to build the Northwest's first automatic ski tow, modeled on one in Vermont. While working for Tacoma businessman Chauncey Griggs, who had just founded Ski Lifts Inc., he and a friend installed the first rope tow on Snoqualmie's Municipal Hill. Mr. Moffett and another friend, Rance Morris, bought out Griggs shortly before World War II.

Mr. Moffett continued to build rope tows and hired workers from Seattle and North Bend. Multitudes of skiers took their first lessons at Snoqualmie. Each weekend dozens of buses, packed with children as young as 5, would descend upon the pass for the day.

In 1954, Snoqualmie's first double chairlift opened. During the 1980s, with his son David, Mr. Moffett bought the three adjacent ski areas - the former Ski Acres, Alpental and Hyak.

Mr. Moffett, who also liked to boat, play tennis and travel, had taken less of a role in the business in the past 10 years but still lent a hand.

Also surviving are children Laurie Padden of Seattle and Bill Moffett of San Francisco, and six grandchildren. His wife of 59 years, Virginia Moffett, died in 1996.

Services are at 1 p.m. March 13 at Epiphany Parish of Seattle.

Donations may go to SKIFORALL Foundation, 1621 114th Ave. S.E., Suite 132, Bellevue, WA 98004; and the Webb Moffett Memorial Fund for the Chapel of St. Bernard, c/o 7900 S.E. 28th St., Suite 200, Mercer Island, WA 98040.