Class of 2020
Innovator and Leader in West Virginia Snow Sports
Area Operations and/or Management or Development Competition
Dr. Thomas Brigham
Sugar, Beech, and Snowshoe Mountains would not be without Dr. Tom "Doc" Brigham. While Doc Brigham was a dentist and a professor at the UAB School of Dentistry, he was known among ski area management and fans of the Southeast ski resorts as "The Father of Southern Skiing".
Dr. Brigham pioneered Beech and Sugar Mountains' development in North Carolina and later did the same at Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia. He was a true Renaissance man and visionary developer. Dr. Brigham loved the outdoors, skiing, fly fishing, painting, and golfing. He was also passionate about creating & developing ski slopes, homes, and lifestyles in the recreational arena.
According to his obituary, he was incredibly proud of the economic tax base that the resort and recreational industry provided through new opportunities and jobs for the people in the Appalachian Mountain regions. Doc Brigham is recognized throughout Snowshoe's complex with pictures and paintings on numerous lodge walls and offices. Snowshoe named of its gateways to the Village area "The Brigham Center".