William “Bill” Lash a native of Twin Falls, Idaho, Bill Lash began skiing in 1940. In 1945, he helped design and build a ski lift at Magic Mountain, owned by Claude Jones. He subsequently took over the ski school at that location and was certified by the Intermountain Ski Instructors Association in 1950.
While attending the University of Utah , Lash directed the U of U’s ski program. It was during those years in the early 1950s that Lash developed a close friendship with Alta’s Alf Engen and began ski teaching in the Deseret News Ski School and part time with the Alf Engen Ski School. This association with Alf and his ski school as an instructor lasted well into the 1960s. It was during the early ski teaching years at Alta that Lash started formulating his ideas on integrating the differing ski instruction methods throughout America into a single standard methodology.
In 1957, Lash was appointed chairman of the certification committee for the National Ski Association. In 1958, he put together a national meeting of ski instructors from all seven divisions of the National Ski Association. This week long meeting was held at Alta and included sessions on certification standards and techniques used in different parts of the country. Based on what was discussed at this event, Bill Lash wrote and published his Outline of Ski Teaching Methods in 1958. This was the first complete ski instructors’ manual distributed on a national level.
In 1961, Lash founded the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) and served as its first president for nine years. He also co-founded the Veterans Ski Instructor Alliance in the early 1990s.
In 1983, Bill Lash was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame. This was followed by induction to the PSIA – Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame in 1991; the Golden Quill Award for outstanding contribution to American Skiing by the North American Ski Journalists Association in 1992; the Alf Engen Ski School Hall of Fame in 1993; and the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame in 2004.