Jörg Dutschke was born about July 21,1941. The date and place are not quite clear, we just know that he came with his mother to Immenstadt, Germany, a small town in the Bavarian Alps surrounded by tall mountains and the hometown of Werner Schuster, Alpine Meadows’ first ski school director and head of marketing. That was after World War II had ended. Jörg’s family were refugees from East Germany and settled in a small farm community just outside of Immenstadt, where he had to go for middle and high school. Jörg was the same age as Jürgen, Werner’s younger brother, and they became good friends, mainly through skiing. They were inseparable, whether it was doing some good or getting into trouble together. After graduating from high school, both entered an apprenticeship program, Jürgen for toolmaking and Jörg for electrical engineering. After completing their apprenticeship programs, both went to the city of Ulm, a four-hour bike ride from Immenstadt, to work in their respective fields.
That was about the time when Werner joined Alpine Meadows ski area in 1963 to run the ski school for Luggi Foeger, who was part of the 10th Mountain Division and the original ski school director. Werner hired Jürgen and the following year, in 1965, brought him over to Tahoe. He had no idea how to teach skiing, but he sure could ski. The first season he picked up the basics of ski instructing so that by the following season, he passed the Far West instructors tests and was on his way. At Alpine, he taught mainly the advanced classes and when they developed a race department and offered racing lessons, Jörg was the ideal choice for instructor. Sometime at the end of the century, Skiing Magazine came out with the NASTAR race program and Jörg became the national pacesetter.
One of Alpine’s instructors, Walter Fröis from Austria, directed the ski school at Mount Bulller in Australia during our summers. Through that contact, Jörg decided to give up summers to teach in Australia for 17 seasons. He was chief examiner for the Australian Ski Association for three years, and an Australian delegate to the 1983 INTERSKI, an international association of ski instructors. His passion for racing continued — he was a masters winner in his age group many times.
Jörg eventually stayed in Tahoe, built himself a house, and started to work for one of the river rafting companies driving a shuttle bus and repairing rubber rafts, which took him almost to the end of his working life. He had given up skiing almost entirely as his legs were ruined from years of abuse, so he entertained himself playing golf almost all year. When his health started to deteriorate and his kidneys required weekly dialysis, he moved to Reno, where he passed away.
Jörg is survived by his niece, Angelika Wettig, of Germany. He developed a lifelong friendship with Chip Lambert and Mo Mailhot, with whom he shared his love of skiing, sailing, golf, and other sports. Chip and Mo were there for Jörg as his health declined. Jörg never lost his high spirits and positive outlook on life, always coming to former instructors gatherings, and so we close the story of Jörg with his favorite salute, “Ski heil.”
~ Werner Schuster
