Alexander Cushing

Alexander Cochrane Cushing (November 28, 1913 – August 19, 2006) was a lawyer who founded Squaw Valley Ski Resort in California.

Early life Alexander Cochrane Cushing was born on November 28, 1913, in New York City. He was the son of Howard Gardiner Cushing (1869–1916), a well-known artist who died when Cushing was three years old, and Ethel (née Cochrane) Cushing (1882–1948), who had poor health most of her life. an artist. His older brother, Howard Gardiner Cushing Jr. (1906–1979), married Mary Callender Ames (1908–1982), daughter of Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr.

In 1925, his mother remarried to James Denison Sawyer (1875–1943), As a child, he lived at a home on East 70th Street, in a house designed by his godfather, William Delano. and Mary Lynde (née Sullivan) Cochrane (1851–1918). His maternal aunt, Margaret Cochrane, married F. Murray Forbes, His first cousin, Alexander Cochrane Forbes was married to Irene Helen Robbins, the daughter of Warren Delano Robbins.

Due to the early death of his father and his mother's health issues, Cushing spent much of his young life at boarding school, attended the Groton School, graduated from Harvard University in 1936, and then Harvard Law School three years later in 1939.

Career Following his graduation from law school, he practiced for three years, working at the U.S. State Department, upon the recommendation of Groton classmate, Stewart Alsop, He decided that its possibilities as a ski resort were great, so he went into partnership to develop it with Wayne Poulsen, a pilot and former champion skier who had purchased much of the valley's land, , in the 1940s from Union Pacific Railroad and first showed it to him. He eventually won his bid, and Squaw Valley hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, beating out the well established St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Innsbruck, Austria. Due to his efforts, he was on the cover of Time magazine in 1959.

Squaw Valley is one of the largest ski areas in the United States and is the second-largest ski area in Lake Tahoe with and the only funitel in the U.S. attracting approximately 600,000 skiers a year.

Personal life Cushing was married three times. His first marriage was in 1938 to Justine Bayard Cutting (1918–2003), the daughter of Dr. Robert Bayard "Fulton" Cutting (1886–1967) and Mary Josephine Armory (1887–1971). Her father was a first cousin of Justine Bayard Cutting Ward (1879–1975). Her grandfather, Robert Cutting (1852–1934), was the brother of William Bayard Cutting (1850–1912) and the son of Elise Justine Bayard (1823–1853), and served as the president of Cooper Union School of Architecture and Engineering and chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Association. Before their divorce in 1965, they had three daughters together: Lily Cushing, who married Janek Kunczynski, who founded Lift Engineering; and Alexandra Olivia Cochrane Cushing, who married Philip King Howard, an attorney with Covington & Burling and the son of Rev. John R. Howard, in 1972. Howard is a descendant of Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

His second marriage was to Elizabeth Ogden (née Woodward) Pratt (1907–1985), the daughter of William Woodward Sr. (1876–1953) and Elizabeth Ogden "Elsie" Cryder (1882–1981), and the sister of William Woodward Jr. (1920–1955). She was first married to Robert Livingston Stevens Jr. (1907–1972). After their divorce in 1935, he married Grace Vanderbilt (d. 1964). Her second marriage was to John Teele Pratt Jr. (1903–1969), which lasted until his death in 1969.

In 1985, while she was providing legal counsel regarding development land issues at the base of Squaw Valley, he met his third and final wife, Nancy R. Wendt. They married in 1987 and remained married to until his death in 2006. Wendt, who had also spent her third year of law school at Harvard, received her law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1975.

Cushing died on August 19, 2006, at his summer home in Newport, Rhode Island.

Descendants His granddaughter, Charlotte Iris Cushing Howard, married Daniel Robert Osnoss, both graduates of Yale, in 2012.

Honors In 1999, Cushing was inducted into the Ski Industry Hall of Fame for his lifetime contribution to the sport.