 richard "dick" henry durrance (october 23, 1914 &ndash; june 13, 2004) was a 17-time national championship alpine ski racer and one of the first americans to compete successfully against europeans.  durrance was born in tarpon springs, florida, and moved with his family at age 13 in 1928 to munich, germany, where he learned to ski at nearby garmisch-partenkirchen. durrance raced competitively in germany and won the german junior alpine championship in 1932 at age 17. the following year, he learned the newly developed parallel turn from anton seelos.{{cite book |last=fry |first=john |date=2006 |title=the story of modern skiing |url=http://books.google.de/books?
1914_births 2004_deaths Alpine_skiers_at_the_1936_Winter_Olympics American_male_alpine_skiers Dartmouth_College_alumni Olympic_alpine_skiers_of_the_United_States People_from_Tarpon_Springs,_Florida