Notes for: Fritz Leopold Louis Max Kramer
Orphaned by age 12 and still residing in his native Austria when the Nazis overran his country in 1938, Fritz L. Kramer came to the United States in late 1939. (Earlier in the year, his passage on the ship Europa from Bremen, Germany, arriving in New York on April 7 1939, was canceled according to the original ship's manifest.) He worked on a farm in New Jersey the first summer. In the winter, he taught skiing at Vermont's highest mountain, Mount Mansfield, near Stowe. He was, in fact, the first paid patrolman of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Patrol, which was the nation's first ski patrol. His colleague there was Charles Minot "Minnie" Dole, who not only formed the National Ski Patrol, but also conceived the 10th Mountain Division of World War II fame, in which Fritz was an early enlistee. Fritz spent the winter of 1940-41 living in the Stone Hut on Mt. Mansfield's summit, making occasional trips to the base lodge for provisions and a hot shower. He gained notoriety by being the first patrolman to lead a toboggan down the Nose Dive Trail single-handedly. He is a member of the Vermont Ski Museum Hall of Fame. In an article in "Mt. Mansfield Skiing," April 6, 1942, the author observes: "How Fritz Kramer, anchorman for the Mt. Mansfield patrol, manages to keep so good natured is amazing. Despite having to lug around toboggans four times his size, and skiers four times his weight, he continues to remind us of a benevolent fieldmouse -- until he is called to help a hysteric woman. Hysteric women are an anathema to Fritz. He doesn't like them. But they like him."
Drafted into the Army in 1942, he was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington. He was a skiing and mountain-climbing instructor with the 87th Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division at several locations, including Camp Hale, Colorado and Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County, West Virginia. In 1944 he was transferred to the division's medical unit and was sent to Italy. He was instrumental in his unit's capture of 3700-foot Monte Belvedere in the Apennine Mountains in a two-sided assault. During the Po River campaign, he received the Bronze Star for the rescue of an officer who was wounded on a patrol about two miles behind enemy lines. In November 1945, he was discharged in Vienna, remaining there to work with Army intelligence doing de-nazification work.
After returning to the United States in July 1946, he enrolled at Seattle College and began studies in business and foreign trade. He later transferred to the University of Washington, where he was awarded an A.B. degree in 1950. Doing his post-graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, he was awarded a Master's degree in geography in 1953, and a Ph.D. in historical and cultural cartography in 1957. Academic positions he held during his career included the following: Allegheny College (Meadville Pa) 1953-1955; Univ. of Nevada 1956-1960; Univ. of Oregon 1960-1962; Colorado College 1962-1964; Sacramento State College 1964-1966. He went on to be a renowned professor of geography at Portland State University in Oregon, remaining there from 1966 until retirement. In conjunction with his position there, he also served several years in Europe as Director, European Studies Institute, Zagreb, Yugoslavia 1972; and as Resident Director, Oregon Study Center in Germany, Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1977-1980, 1982-1983. He was named Professor Emeritus of Geography at Portland State University in December 1983.
http://stowe.com/upload/photos/Ski_Patrol_Article.pdf
http://www.americantowns.com/vt/stowe/news/mount-mansfield-ski-patrol-75-years-161156
http://www.skimuseum.org/page.php?cid=doc145
http://oldweb.geog.berkeley.edu/PeopleHistory/History/60YrsGeog/Kramer,%20Fritz.html