Erich Windisch started skiing in Germany at age 2 and he was still teaching at 88 in Vail.
Windisch, who was 89 when he died Feb. 14 at Vail Valley Medical Center, helped thousands of students in a 39-year teaching career at Vail.
One of those was his daughter, Sasha Windisch, 19, who got on skis when she was 2 1/2.
But unknown to many people, he was the one, who, by accident, came up with the arms-down position for ski jumpers. It is used all over the world now.
But in 1950, Windisch, in training for competition, dislocated his shoulder. Though he couldn’t raise his arms straight out in the usual fashion, he was determined to jump. So he put his arms straight down against his body.
He won the Bavarian championship and his new position was adopted by other skiers who realized it improved aerodynamics.
Scientific tests made in a wind tunnel in Switzerland proved the arms- down style was better, said Windisch’s wife, Elena Windisch.
“Erich was extraordinarily energetic and resourceful,” said Andy Daly, former president of Vail Associates. “He was so committed to helping people enjoy the sport.”
Windisch was known as a patient teacher who loved nothing better than “to see the grin” on a student’s face after he or she had just mastered a turn, Elena Windisch said.
“He connected with everyone and was always willing to adapt and change with the times,” Sasha Windisch said.
Elena Windisch found a letter from a former student to her husband that read, “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
Windisch taught skiing etiquette as well as skiing, Daly said, making sure that students skied safely, used manners on the slope and didn’t disrupt the environment.
“He was a taskmaster who strived for excellence,” said a longtime friend, Dave Gorsuch of Vail.
Windisch Way, the run that connects Golden Peak with the rest of Vail Mountain, was named for Windisch in 1994, the same year he was named to the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame.
Gorsuch was a speaker at the memorial service in Vail on Wednesday night for Windisch. More than 100 skiers, carrying torches, snaked down the mountain in the darkness.
Erich Windisch was born in Schoneck, Germany, in 1918. He began his jumping career in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he made the German Olympic team. He headed the ski school at Garmisch.
He came to the U.S. in 1956 and taught skiing at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Red River in New Mexico and Arapahoe Ski Basin before going to Vail.
He studied architecture and eventually built three houses – one in Vail for his family and two in Dillon.
He did oil paintings for years and had an annual showing at the Vail Library. His paintings often were of mountains, here and in Europe. “He did the Matterhorn (mountain) over and over,” his wife said.
He told an interviewer recently that he painted to help people believe “in the beauty and glory of human existence.”
He met Elena Bercovici when she visited Vail in 1977. They married on Dec. 24, 1986.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
