Corey Engen (March 30, 1916 – May 9, 2006) was the captain of the U.S. Nordic

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...

team at the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (german: V. Olympische Winterspiele; french: Ves Jeux olympiques d'hiver; it, V Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, V Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. Moritz ...

St. Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality ...

, Switzerland. He was the youngest of the three Engen brothers that pioneered and popularized alpine skiing in the intermountain west, primarily in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

Biography

Corey (born ''Kaare'') was a ski jumper and cross-country skier in his native

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Engen was born in the town of Mjøndalen in

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Har ...

county, the third son of Trond and Martha Oen Engen. After his father died of the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

in 1918, his mother and brothers moved the short distance to small town

Steinberg Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH (trading as Steinberg) is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops music writing, recording, arranging, and editing software, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It als ...

. His older brothers Alf (age 20) and

Sverre Sverre, Sverrir or Sverri is a Nordic name from the Old Norse ''Sverrir'', meaning "wild, swinging, spinning". It is a common name in Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands; it is less common in Denmark and Sweden. It can also be a surname. Sverre m ...

(age 18) emigrated to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

in 1929, first settling in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, then relocating to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

in 1931. Corey (age 17) and his widowed mother Martha emigrated in March 1933, joining brothers Alf and Sverre in

. Corey Engen was one of the first ski instructors at

Sun Valley, Idaho Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1406 at the 2010 census, down from 1427 in 2000.McCall, Idaho McCall is a resort town on the western edge of Valley County, Idaho, United States. Named after its founder, Tom McCall, it is situated on the southern shore of Payette Lake, near the center of the Payette National Forest. The population was 2,991 ...

, first teaching at the

Little Ski Hill The Little Ski Hill is a modest ski area in the western United States, located in west central Idaho, two miles (3 km) west of McCall. Adjacent to Highway 55, immediately west of the county line in Adams County, it was formerly known as the "Pa ...

, then known as the "Payette Lakes Ski Area." In the late 1940s, Engen had initiated the ski school at

Snowbasin Snowbasin Resort is a ski resort in the western United States, located in Weber County, Utah, northeast of Salt Lake City, on the back (east) side of the Wasatch Range. Opened in 1939, as part of an effort by the city of Ogden to restore the W ...

, near

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

, and also coached the

Weber State College Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

ski team. In 1951 he returned to McCall, and ten years later was instrumental in the development of the new

Brundage Mountain Brundage Mountain Resort is an alpine ski area in the western United States, located in west central Idaho in the Payette National Forest. Brundage first opened in November 1961 and is northwest of McCall, a twenty-minute drive in average winter ...

ski area, managing it until 1970. Corey won more than 500 medals and trophies in all skiing disciplines (jumping, cross-country, downhill, slalom, and giant slalom). He was captain of the 1948 U.S. Olympic ski jumping team and got a Bronze medal in the jumping portion of the Olympic classic combined event, involving both jumping and cross-country., he was the recipient of 22 gold medals in national competitions. He was inducted into the U.S.

National Ski Hall of Fame The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Ishpeming, Michigan, the birthplace of organized skiing in the United States. Located in the state's Upper Peninsula, the building includes the hall of fame and museum, as well as a ...

in 1973. A resident of McCall for over 50 years, Engen and his wife Norma moved to Lindon,

in 1995, due to her declining health. After her death in December 2002, Engen moved to Provo. Corey Engen died in

Orem Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Me ...

at the age of 90, his death attributed to complications from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. He was survived by two children, eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. He is buried in the Larkin Sunset Gardens Cemetery in

Sandy, Utah Sandy is a city in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The population of Sandy was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah. The population is currently estimated ...

. Engen was an active member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

Alf Engen Ski Museum

The Alf Engen Ski Museum is located in the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center at

Utah Olympic Park The Utah Olympic Park is a winter sports park built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, and is located in Summit County ( east of Salt Lake City) northwest of Park City, Utah, United States. During the 2002 games the park hosted the bobsleigh, skele ...

, four miles north of

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...

. It contains more than 300 trophies, medals, uniforms, scrapbooks, skis, boots, photos, films and other collectables that span some 70 years in the career of the Engen family. The museum's educational component gives school children a skiing-based foundation to study subjects such as the

water cycle The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly cons ...

, physics and Utah's colorful history.

References

External links

Corey Engen: full obituary
-

The Idaho Statesman The ''Idaho Statesman'' is the daily newspaper of Boise, Idaho, in the western United States. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History The paper was first published as the ''Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman'' on July 26, 1864, by James S. Reynolds ...

- 11-May-2006
Corey Engen: brief obituary
-

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...

(AP) 11-May-2006
Brundage Mountain Resort
- history
Corey Engen Scrapbooks
-

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of D ...

- Marriott Library: Special Collections
University of Utah Ski Archives
- 1992 Ski Affair: Corey Engen
Skiing History.com
- Corey Engen (1916–2006)
U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame
– Corey Engen
Alf Engen Ski Museum
– Corey Engen * {{DEFAULTSORT:Engen, Corey 1916 births 2006 deaths American male alpine skiers American male cross-country skiers American male Nordic combined skiers Norwegian Latter Day Saints Norwegian male alpine skiers Weber State University people Norwegian emigrants to the United States People from McCall, Idaho People from Sun Valley, Idaho People from Lindon, Utah People from Provo, Utah Olympic cross-country skiers of the United States Olympic Nordic combined skiers of the United States Cross-country skiers at the 1948 Winter Olympics Nordic combined skiers at the 1948 Winter Olympics