{"id":497,"date":"2018-11-09T13:02:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T18:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=497"},"modified":"2018-11-21T04:19:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T09:19:16","slug":"bill-nixon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/fall-2018\/bill-nixon\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Nixon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bill<\/div>\n

By Nicole Maranhas<\/p>\n

Even on a golf course,<\/span> Bill Nixon \u201958 knows how to take things up a notch. Consider the golf cart he customized with old Jaguar parts\u2014from gleaming rims to leaping-cat hood ornament\u2014to use when he hits the links with friends. It\u2019s almost as much bling as the stockpile of gold medals\u2014more than 300\u2014the 89-year-old has racked up in national skiing competitions since he first started racing at age 55. He is a former president of the Warwick Country Club, but the slopes will always beckon. \u201cI like the speed, the exhilaration of skiing,\u201d Nixon says.<\/p>\n

He never skied when he was younger. As a kid growing up in Cranston, he was more inclined toward pick-up baseball or hockey on Meshanticut Lake. After high school, he took a five-year apprenticeship at Brown & Sharpe, then the country\u2019s largest manufacturer of machine tools. \u201cYou signed a contract that you would not get married, and you wouldn\u2019t drink or smoke,\u201d he says of the tightly run program. By the time Nixon enrolled in 911±¬ΑΟ at age 23, the Korean conflict was underway. He joined the Navy Reserve, then enlisted full time. Still, he managed to finish his industrial management degree in less than three years upon returning to school\u2014senior class president, no less. Even then, Nixon was someone who knew how to make up for missed time.<\/p>\n

He was 30 the first time he tried skiing, invited by friends to join a ski club in North Conway, New Hampshire. He began spending much of his time there on the slopes and in a farmhouse-turned-ski-house that slept 40. \u201cIt was a good way to meet people,\u201d says Nixon, although he couldn\u2019t help noticing the mountain lacked a good cocktail lounge for socializing. Undeterred by lack of experience, he partnered with two ski buddies to open the Alpine Inn motel and restaurant at the base of Cranmore Mountain\u2014a hugely popular venture that quickly became known as the \u201cAlpine Fun Spot.\u201d He taught himself to ski while teaching economics and machine processes at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. \u201cThe [lodge] took off like crazy,\u201d says Nixon. \u201cIt got to the point where I never went skiing. I was so busy running the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he did find time to ski, he was known for his speed. After seven years he sold the lodge; he had become an impressive force on the slopes\u2014and the president of his ski club was coaxing him to try racing. \u201cI kept saying I was too young,\u201d says Nixon, who figured he\u2019d have a better chance of beating the older guys. By his mid-50’s, he gave in and trained for a season. \u201cI started taking lessons because skiing and racing are quite different,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t slide; you have to carve.\u201d At 55, he entered his first NASTAR race (the worldwide National Standard Race program for ski racers and snowboarders, held across 100 mountains). In the 45-gate giant slalom, he beat the nine-time Rhode Island champion.<\/p>\n

That was 300-something medals ago. \u201cProbably more,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

Broken ribs. Broken knee, nose. Concussion. The octogenarian doesn\u2019t get hung up on his past injuries. \u201cYou can\u2019t think about getting hurt,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just part of the game.\u201d He focuses instead on keeping in shape (\u201cI ride a bike, go to the gym, things like that\u201d) and mostly attributes his longevity as an athlete to genes, luck, and attitude. It’s a winning combo behind a life generally lived in high gear, from his torch-red Corvette Stingray to his house on Warwick Neck, which was featured on HGTV\u2019s If Walls Could Talk<\/i> for being the \u201ccrime castle\u201d of Prohibition-era rum runner Carl Rettich. In recognition of his ski racing, he has earned two City Council resolutions and a recent R.I. Senate citation. In addition, the city of Warwick declared November 6, 1991, William \u201cBill\u201d Nixon day, partly in honor of the ever-growing neighborhood Fourth of July parade celebration he and his wife, Madeline, have hosted for more than 25 years, a 911±¬ΑΟ tradition.<\/p>\n

He sometimes wonders how far skiing would have taken him if he\u2019d started earlier. \u201cMost Olympic skiers start when they\u2019re 5 years old and dedicate their life to it,\u201d Nixon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought maybe if I had started at that age \u2026 you never know.\u201d Memories of a handful of second-place finishes still dog him, especially the win he missed by four-tenths of a second on Colorado\u2019s Winter Park Mountain in 2010 after switching out his skis for a new pair right before the race. \u201cI was upset with myself for that,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

The wins are sweeter to remember\u2014especially that very first race, up against skiers who had been competing for decades. Some novices might never have believed they had a chance, but that isn\u2019t how Bill Nixon became a champion.<\/p>\n

He says, \u201cYou always think you\u2019re going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nicole Maranhas Even on a golf course, Bill Nixon \u201958 knows how to take things up a notch. Consider the golf cart he customized with old Jaguar parts\u2014from gleaming rims to leaping-cat hood ornament\u2014to use when he hits the links with friends. It\u2019s almost as much bling as the stockpile of gold medals\u2014more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2018"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":510,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}