Harry Kaiser, longtime publisher of Skiing magazine, dies at 91

Harry Kaiser was always around water. Sometimes that water was salty. Sometimes it was frozen.

Kaiser, who grew up in Baldwin, would dig clams in the summer.

A career in ad sales led Kaiser to become publisher of Skiing magazine, a title he held for 27 years. He was such a legend in the skiing world and publishing industry that he was inducted as part of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015.

Following his retirement in 1996, Kaiser and his wife, Carolyn, moved full time to Captiva Island, Florida.

At the time of his death on Oct. 23 at the age of 91, Kaiser was a commissioner for the Captiva Erosion Prevention District, a Florida beach and shore preservation district.

It was a job he started in 2008 and continued right up until he passed, said his daughter Carolyn Kaiser Ekstrom.

"He enjoyed life to the fullest, to say the least," said Kaiser Ekstrom, a Rockville Centre resident. "He kept very active, even up until the last week when he was at work. He did what he loved and he always did it with such jubilation. He was always such a positive person."

The Kaisers, who were married in 1955, lived in Rockville Centre and raised five children — four girls and a boy.

After graduating from Fordham University, Kaiser served in the Army before returning to Long Island and getting his first job with a company that printed Yellow Pages telephone directories, according to a 2016 profile that appeared in Newsday.

That led to Kaiser’s career in ad sales. He was so prolific at it that in 1969, he was named publisher of Skiing magazine.

A casual skier, Kaiser really started to hit the slopes.

"He was a limited skier before," Kaiser Ekstrom said. "My mother and her family introduced him to skiing, but then when he got his first job in publishing and he was hired by Skiing magazine, that’s when his love for it really grew. He became actually a very good skier."

In the 1980s, when Skiing magazine was sold to Times Mirror, Kaiser ran the entire magazine division, which included Skiing magazine and its former competitor, Ski magazine, which later absorbed Skiing.

Kaiser’s given name was Henry, but he always went by "Harry." He told Newsday in 2016 that there were two times he was called "Henry." One was during his time in the Army. The other was when he was introduced at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Kaiser recalled that his former colleagues all laughed and said, "Who’s that?"

But everyone in the skiing world and publishing industry knew who he was. The Kaisers were referred to as "The First Family of Skiing" in his Hall of Fame bio.

Justin Koski, the Hall of Fame’s executive director, said in a statement: "Harry was an iconic journalist and had one of the biggest microphones in all of skiing in the early days. He also knew how to use his loud voice to bring more people to see the sport of skiing. Skiing magazine was what people waited for to get excited about skiing. Harry was for skiing in the ’70s and ’80s what action videos and promo clips are on the internet for today's skiers and snowboarders generating stoke while waiting for the snow to cover the slopes. Harry was a legend."

In addition to his daughter, Kaiser is survived by his wife; his son, Henry (Hank) Kaiser of Remsenburg; three other daughters, Lorrie Kaiser Rainis of Rockville Centre, Cindy Kaiser of Captiva Island and Catherine Castelli of Riverside, Connecticut; his sister Marie Burns of Southold; 10 grandchildren, Coral, Cie Lorraine, Bradford, Christof, Hunter, Henry, Cameron, Jackson, Harrison and Kiley; and four great-grandchildren, Tech, Blaise, Luna and Ava.

A memorial service and celebration of life will be held in the spring. On the beach, of course.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.