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Show t ( A si . ' K 1 I t - Ray Johnson: the Retired G-AAan Who Heads Park City Resort "Life is a challenge. If you don't have a challenge to take care of, life can be very boring." Ray Johnson has had his share of challenges in life and met them all well, with one exception retirement. The head of Park City resort, a Salt Lake Native, former CPA, former FBI agent, former owner of a successful Los Angeles construction firm, avid skier, couldn't resist the opportunity to interrupt retirement in 1970 to get involved in the financially troubled troub-led Alpine Meadows resort in Lake Tahoe. He helped put Alpine Meadows on its feet, then, when Park City resort was bought by Alpine Meadows, Johnson came here for "another challenge." And, al-:hough al-:hough he says he'd like to forget the current season, Johnson seems to have pushed Fark City in the right direction as well. A soft-spoken, friendly, balding bald-ing man past his mid-50's, with a pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth, the head of Park City Resort seems much like a soft-hearted retired army general, gene-ral, perhaps the one played by Fred Clark in the movie Holiday Inn. (In which Bing Crosby introduced the song "White Christmas" and Irving Berlin led a rousing version of "This Is The Army, Mrs. Jones."). Johnson seems well-suited to be in charge of a major resort, not just because of administrative experience, but because he loves to ski himself. An unmistakeable gleam appears in his eyes at the mention of powder. "Skiing powder is a religion," he says. "I've skied all my life, most of my philosophy on operating a resort comes from being a consumer." Before he became involved in Alpine Meadows, Johnson says, the resort was run by businessmen business-men who didn't understand the mentality of the skier. The resort would close for a day after a major snowfall. "They didn't understand that you have to get the crew out as soon as possible, at four in the morning if necessary, to get the slopes ready for the powder hounds." His experience as a customer has made him aware of the problems skiers face at resorts, and he says his toughest problems are setting fair guidelines guide-lines and ticket policies. "It's really tough to be hardnosed, but you have to make decisions and stay by them." Overall, Johnson feels that if the resort is properly run, and lodge and restaurant owners do their jobs well, Park City is "as good a place in the United States to ski" as any other. Living Up to Reputation Citing a recent listing by SKI magazine that included Park City in the top five resorts in the country, he says the resort will "have to live up to its reputation." To do this, he feels Park City must develop a summer business and continue to upgrade the existing facilities. Eventually, Johnson would like to see eight more lifts installed. Most of them are planned to originate just above the mid-mountain mid-mountain lodge, leading to Jupiter Peak and a whole new powder area at McConkeys' Bowl. The resort was planning to open one of the new lifts by the start of next season, but this year's drought has forced them to delay the project for at least a year. Plans for installing permanent snow-making equipment on the lower slopes, scheduled for next year, are continuing and have been, if anything, accelerated by the drought. The resort will expand the snowmaking facilities each year, a little at a time. The immediate goal is to make sure that at least one ski run Payday Pay-day will be able to open by .Thanksgiving. Johnson says the proposed lifts can probably be built without overcrowding the slopes, but that plans would be cut back if it appeared the resort was reaching its "maturation" point. The resort center itself is in "pretty good shape," says Johnson, He would like to see more locker space and a permanent children's nursery, and thinks that a major hotel-motel hotel-motel facility near the resort center would help everyone in town. Johnson reports that negotiations negotia-tions are currently under way with a national chain, to build a major facility nearby. "The town needs something big enough for large conventions. The name of the game is to get people here in the summer." Although the present lodge-owners lodge-owners may protest the establishment establish-ment of a national-name facility, Johnson says they would, in fact, benefit from the overflow of business from conventions. The More, The Better The proposed Deer Valley-Lake Flat resort complex and others such as the planned Mayflower Mountain and Wasatch State Park resorts would also help Park City, he says and would not hurt the existing resort in any way. "The more resorts we have, the better." The resort is planning to cooperate with the Deer Valley-Lake Valley-Lake Flat developers on advertising, advertis-ing, with an eventual merger, or at least a "connection," as a possibility sometime in the future. "The only thing that could hurt us is if they put in a second-rate resort." Developers have called the new complex the "Cadillac" of ski resorts. Johnson says he is pleased with the plans he has seen, and not offended that the present resort may be considered a Chevrolet by comparison. "If that's a Cadillac, it will only join another Cadillac." Unlike most businesses, he says, resorts often cooperate to bring skiers into a particular area. Much of the resort's advertising is done in conjunction with other Utah Ski areas to bring people into the state. "If we can get skiers into Utah, a good percentage will come to Park City. We'll have our share." Similarly, western resorts as a whole are concerned with bringing bring-ing business into the west instead of the east, and American resorts try to encourage potential customers cus-tomers to ski in this country instead of in Europe. Johnson is also mindful of the fact that most skiers want to try out different areas, although they may have particular favorites. Balanced Economy Johnson is concerned about the rapid growth taking place in Park City, but feels that new developments, develop-ments, if done properly, can be a "plus" to the community. "We all have to be concerned about the trend towards increased population, but the town needs a little bit more to make a balanced economy. I know there's going to be more development than I'd like, but I want to see it stop somewhere." Johnson was born in Salt Lake City and graduated from the University of Utah in 1940 with a degree in business accounting. After setting up practice as a C.P.A. in Salt Lake and working there for two years, he joined the FBI as an agent. During his nine year tenure, he investigated communist influence within campus activist groups, but finally became frustrated that much of the evidence couldn't be used in the courts. "You'd go out and see all these things, but you couldn't prosecute prose-cute because the evidence was illegal." Johnson feels the intelligence community has been criticized unfairly and he defends J. Edgar Hoover, who he shook hands with "a few times." "He was a tough guy to work for, but he did some good things. Unfortunately, he did some things in later years that he shouldn't have." Johnson left the FBI in the early 1950's and started his own construction company in California, Califor-nia, retiring in 1967 for three years until he became involved in Alpine Meadows. Future Bright Although cross-country skiing is becoming more popular, Johnson thinks the future of downhill skiing looks bright. "Skiing is so much fun, there won't be any natural decline. The only reason it would decline is if people can't keep building new resorts." He sees no conflict between the growth of cross-country and the future of downhill resorts. "For the average skier, crosscountry cross-country is too much work. The cross-country skier likes to be out where nobody else is. "I can't see a conflict. People are going to do what's fun. And anything that gets anybody off their fanny in the winter is a great thing." |
