Wendell Broomhall

Year Inducted: 1981

Born: December 1919             Rumford, ME

A lifelong resident of Rumford, Maine, Wendall "Chummy" Broomhall has devoted his life to the promotion of nordic skiing. He started to ski at the age of nine, won a state championship at 15 and eventually claimed national and North American titles. He was a member of both the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Teams and claims to have been the first American to win a ski race in Norway. He organized and competed in the 1951 F.I.S. World Nordic Championships that were held in Rumford. He was hired as the Chief of Events for the cross country competitions at the Squaw Valley Olympic Games in 1960 and led the design and construction of the cross country courses for the Lake Placid Olympic Games twenty years later. Throughout his career he devoted time to his local ski club and encouraged the development of junior racers from the area.