BANGOR – The Penobscot Valley Ski Club recently presented its first Silver Skis awards for outstanding contributions to skiing to Walter “Slim” Melvin of Bangor, posthumously, and to Kirk Fitts of Portland.

Melvin’s wife, Winifred, and son Walter Jr. accepted the award. Melvin was in the construction industry and served in the Navy Sea Bees during World War II. In 1950, he and other ski club members moved the rope ski tow from Kings Mountain in Orrington to the west side of Bald Mountain in Dedham. In 1952, Melvin, Bill Weeks, Horace Chapman and son John Chapman constructed a warming hut near the base of the tow.

Melvin was president of the ski club from 1948 to 1951. During the late 50s, he and Chapman became founding members of the Sugarloaf Ski Club.

For many of the Golden Ski races, Melvin was both the course setter and the front runner. He also was a member of the National Ski Patrol. Later, he worked on behalf of Sugarloaf ski races even after he stopped skiing. His most noted involvement was serving as the headset “spotter” for Narrow Gauge downhill races in the “double decker” building that the ski club called the “Melvin House.”

When former club president Ruth Souweine organized a ski club history night in 1994, most of the early history of the club was supplied by Slim and Winifred Melvin.

Kirk Fitts joined the ski club in 1991, became a member of the board in 1999, and the following year became vice president. He became club president in 2001 and served in that position until 2004.

Fitts was a member of the Northeastern Alpine Racing Association, representing the racing program at Eaton Mountain in Skowhegan in the late 1970s. He is a certified professional ski instructor and has taught skiing at Squaw Mountain in Greenville and at Sugarloaf.