Snowwriter Profile

Allen R. Smith was born 75 years ago as Simon Lefkowitz; the only Jewish boy in a family of all Mormon women. He was raised under strict religious rule until the age of 13 when he struck out on his own, to avoid daily beatings from his 7 year old sister. For the next several years, Smith hitchhiked under the cover of darkness, ever fearful that his mother would try to hunt him down and return him to the family. By the age of 15, Smith turned to a life of crime after repeated, failed attempts at making an honest living. His final brush with the law occurred on the night of December 24th, 1967 when he was caught sliding down the chimney of the home of the Vail Police chief. The chief’s youngest daughter caught Smith gobbling the cookies left out for Santa and threw herself outside in the snow in a temper tantrum. After the child finally stopped crying, the chief hauled Smith into the station house where he was placed under strict suicide watch until the deputy’s lunch break. Three weeks later, Smith was released from jail under the condition that he apprentice to old Doc Swanson, Vail’s only orthopedic surgeon. The first years in the clinic proved to be challenging as Doc Swanson was getting on in years. Doc would constantly confuse the patients’ left side for their right. Smith would have to accompany Doc into the operating room and point out areas of the anatomy that Doc had long since forgotten. He counted the surgical instruments to make sure that number coming out was greater than the number going in. And finally, he would jiggle the surgical table to compensate for Doc’s uncontrollable tremors. But, it wasn’t until after witnessing hundreds of mangled skiers that Smith knew what he wanted to do: learn how to ski. As luck would have it, one of Doc’s more successful surgeries was on the Vail ski school director, Klaus Undermeyer. Klaus said to Smith, “Say, you look like you can handle quite a bit of confusion and abuse. How would you like to teach skiing for us?