LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the dedication of the new ski
lodge at Little Gore Mountain in memory of Joseph G. Minder on July 6,
2013 during the celebration of the Bicentennial of Warren County

WHEREAS, Many skiers return to the slopes of Gore Mountain year after
year but few can match the life or the skiing life of the late North
Creek resident Joe Minder; and
WHEREAS, He started skiing in 1924 at Hooper's Mine when he was seven
years old; he attended school in a two room schoolhouse in North River
where skiing was part of everyday academics; and
WHEREAS, By his teens, Joe Minder had left the two room schoolhouse to
enroll in North Creek High School; and
WHEREAS, His formative high school years coincided with the rapid
development of the North Creek ski industry as well as, a world away,
troubling developments in the far east; and
WHEREAS, Joe Minder graduated from North Creek High School in 1936 as
most of America reeled from a depression economy and began to take
notice of foreign affairs which would pull Joe and many of his friends
into war; and
WHEREAS, He recalled of his military service, which began on May 15,
1941, that in less than a year he was a civilian in boot camp, was in
the service, had fought in three battles, and was in a prison camp; and
WHEREAS, After training stateside, Joe Minder became associated with
the aviation engineers and, within a few months found himself building
airstrips at Clark Field in the Philippines; and
WHEREAS, By winter, Pearl Harbor had been attacked and Joe Minder,
along with other allied forces in the Philippines, found themselves
under constant air attack from the Japanese; and
WHEREAS, Attacks on the Philippines became even more intense and the
fighting even more furious; in just a short time Joe Minder, who only a
few months before had skied the Ridge trail at Little Gore, found
himself in the Battles of Agloma Point, Corregidor, and Bataan; and
WHEREAS, When the Philippines finally fell, Joe Minder was taken pris-
oner by the Japanese, beginning a three year period of terror in his
life; and
WHEREAS, Through all those years, in prison camps in the Philippines,
aboard Japanese sea vessels, and in the horror of a mainland Japanese
prison camp, Joe Minder, often at the risk of death, continued to jot
down journal entries on scraps of paper found in the camps; and
WHEREAS, Joe Minder's journal provides a remarkable chronicle of human
endurance in camps where disease and torture were the norm and tells a
tale of survival against the odds which resonates over many decades; and
WHEREAS, Joe Minder's camp was finally liberated some three and a half
years after his capture; following liberation, he was furloughed and
spent the next months in and out of hospitals; and
WHEREAS, Returning at last to his parents and his hometown, Joe Minder
was still under medical treatment and could not yet handle strenuous
labor and, finding skiing to be therapeutic, he recalls going to North
Creek to ski a bit and then returning to his parents' home for more
medical treatment during the week; and
WHEREAS, During this time, he had also taken to offering young Hazel
Allen a ride home from her work at the office of Dr. Glenn, his doctor;
and
WHEREAS, Joe Minder and Hazel married in 1948 and had two sons, Bob
and Jack, both of whom are skiers in their own right; and

WHEREAS, In a skiing career which encompassed every phase of skiing at
Gore Mountain, Joe Minder is well-known to have had the friendliest face
on the mountain; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the dedication of the new ski lodge at Little Gore Mountain
in memory of Joseph G. Minder on Saturday, July 6, 2013 during the Town
of Johnsburg's and the Village of North Creek's celebration of the
Bicenntenial of Warren County; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the family of Joseph G. Minder.