Otto Wallingford; Created Snow-Grooming Machine

Otto Wallingford, 76, who invented a snow-grooming machine that improved conditions at ski slopes around the world. An agricultural engineer who helped found Maine’s Lost Valley ski area, he worked with a local farm equipment dealer to rig up a roller webbed with diamond-shaped openings to pulverize hard-packed snow and turn its crust into powder. He lent it to the operators of the Sugarloaf ski area, who proclaimed it a success. Using his own funds, Wallingford built 25 more machines and called his design the Powder Maker. He patented the grooming machine in the United States and five European countries and founded Valley Engineering to make and sell the equipment. He sold the company to employees in 1975. Wallingford also built Maine’s first snow-making system and designed and built pole guns to blast snow from trees and light towers. On Jan. 2 in Auburn, Maine.