Richard Henry Durrance (October 23, 1914 – June 13, 2004)[1] was a 17-time national championship alpine ski racer and one of the first Americans to compete successfully against Europeans.

[2][3] Durrance was born in Tarpon Springs, Florida, and moved with his family at age 13 in 1928 to Munich, Germany, where he learned to ski at nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

[5] With the rise of Hitler, the family returned to the United States and he attended Dartmouth College in 1934 and won at Sestriere, Italy, the first American to dominate at a major European ski race.

They moved to Seattle, where Dick worked for Boeing on in-flight camera recording equipment as a Flight Test Engineer, a job that lasted until 1945.

At the same time, Durrance contracted with Denver's Ernest Constam, inventor of the J-bar and the T-bar ski lifts, to sell his conveyances in the West.