HE DREAMED IT. HE DID IT. REMEMBERING CHANNING MURDOCK.
Channing Brown Murdock, 91, passed away peacefully on July 8, 2026, with his two sons by his side.
More than six decades ago, Channing and his wife, Jane, saw possibility where others might have simply seen an old dude ranch and a wooded mountainside. With vision, determination and an extraordinary willingness to do the work themselves, they created Butternut Basin.
When Butternut opened in December 1963, Channing and Jane were just 28 years old — the youngest ski area owners in the nation.
What followed was far more than the building of a ski area. Channing built lifts, cut trails, made snow, designed Butternut's logo, created advertisements, cooked hamburgers, welded equipment and worked alongside generations of employees. There was scarcely a part of Butternut he did not touch.
Today, his influence can still be felt across the mountain he helped create and throughout the wider ski industry he spent decades helping to advance.
We remember Channing with gratitude for the mountain he built, the people he brought together and the remarkable legacy he leaves behind.
“He dreamed it and he did it!” These were the words of his late wife, Jane Murdock, describing how they converted a defunct dude ranch into a ski area called Butternut Basin. Channing had the vision, drive and confidence to turn three rope tows and five short trails into a successful ski area. When Butternut opened in December 1963, Channing and Jane were both 28, making them the youngest ski area owners in the nation. For more than six decades, Butternut has enriched lives and livelihoods throughout the region.
Channing was born in New York City on February 27, 1935, to Margaret Brown and Robert M. Murdock. The younger of two sons, he grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. He was a rambunctious boy who loved music and had an insatiable appetite for the outdoors. His introduction to skiing came during family holidays at the Woodbound Inn in New Hampshire and at nearby Fahnestock State Park. By age 12, skiing had become such a passion that he cut his own trail on a small hill above the Saw Mill River Parkway at the end of his street, the first of many ski runs he would create.
His love of the outdoors led to many adventures. At Camp Keewaydin in Canada, he paddled north toward Hudson Bay with fellow campers and counselors, learning to fish from local Indigenous people. As a young man, he spent two summers in the White Mountains as a “hut boy,” carrying lumber and supplies for Appalachian Mountain Club huts on Mount Washington. He spoke wistfully of those years and kept his hobnail boots and wood-and-canvas packboard.
Channing attended Middlebury College, majored in geology and met Jane Hoge of Landgrove, VT. He also loved to sing and belonged to several a cappella groups in high school and college. When he met Jane, a music appreciation major who skied, played tennis and loved the outdoors, he was smitten. She was his perfect match. They married after graduation in 1956 and moved to El Paso, TX, where Channing served as a First Lieutenant in the Army. He skied on weekends in Taos, learned photography and taught trampoline for the Army. Their first son, Jef, was born in 1958.
Although Channing enjoyed the order and discipline of Army life, Jane did not. They returned east to Watervliet, NY, where he took a junior executive position at a sandpaper company. Convinced a desk job was not for him, he sought work in the ski industry. In 1960, at age 25, he became General Manager of Mohawk Ski Area in Cornwall, CT, under owner Walt Schoenknecht, who taught him the “guts of the business.” Channing did everything, from shoveling outhouses to experimenting with early snowmaking equipment. He installed Mohawk’s first chairlift, built by the Italian company Carlevaro & Savio, following instructions written entirely in Italian. It was the first chairlift erected at a southern New England ski area and the first of many Channing would build.
After two years at Mohawk, Channing and Jane decided to create a ski area of their own. While driving through Great Barrington in 1962, they found the G-BAR-S Ranch for sale and envisioned Butternut Basin. A local bank initially denied their loan, but Channing returned a week later and won its full support. After purchasing the property, he convinced the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to lease him the upper half of Warner Mountain. To finance a chairlift and base lodge, he sold 136 shares of Butternut stock at $1,000 each, going door-to-door to find investors. In place of dividends, each shareholder received an annual season pass. Bankers, officials, shareholders and customers believed in his vision, and he did not disappoint them.
Using a Nikon transit and high school trigonometry, Channing established a line through the trees to the mountaintop and determined where to pour the chairlift footings. He and a small crew cleared the lift line and several trails with chainsaws. In October 1963, Channing and Jane welcomed their second son, Timothy. Two months later, on the day before Christmas, Butternut opened with a chairlift to the summit, a handful of trails, a base lodge and a ticket booth. A lift ticket cost six dollars.
There was never any question who was in charge at Butternut. Channing was hands-on and everywhere. He woke at 4:30 a.m. to call ski reports into newspapers and radio stations, made snow day and night and often worked to exhaustion. He was known to nap lengthwise on warm snowmaking pipes amid the drone of the snow guns. He cooked hamburgers, cut trails, built the snowmaking system, designed the logo, toured politicians, drove the summer camp bus, welded chairlifts, hosted wine-and-cheese parties, created advertisements and built the ski area’s electrical generating plant. There was no part of the business he did not touch.
Hardworking, charismatic, frugal and resourceful, Channing always had his eyes on the next improvement. One evening at Alice’s at Avaloch, now the Apple Tree Inn, he looked out the window, excused himself and returned 20 minutes later announcing, “I just bought a lift.” He had spotted an abandoned POMA lift in the backyard, covered in brush. It was soon moved to Butternut and reinstalled to serve the Racecourse Trail. Overtime, he installed three used lifts at Butternut, becoming a skilled welder and fabricator in the process.
In 1969, Channing and his brother Rob purchased Satan’s Ridge Ski Area in New Hartford, CT. They modernized the property, added electricity, running water and night skiing, rebuilt the lodge and renamed it Ski Sundown. They hired Rick Carter as General Manager. Channing and Rick became lifelong friends, and Rick later became Ski Sundown’s owner.
When electricity costs rose sharply in the 1980s, Channing built Butternut’s own power plant using two older diesel generators. He researched the requirements, engineered the concrete foundations, found knowledgeable tradesmen and supervised construction of a complex generating facility without civil or mechanical engineers. Channing read the plans, organized the team and figured it out.
Channing had an exceptional ability to connect with people and formed meaningful relationships with customers, employees and friends. He held the highest standards and wanted every job done right. By working beside his employees, he earned their respect and built lasting bonds, considering those he worked with family. From the beginning, Butternut was also a partnership with Jane. They (He and Jane) worked tirelessly together and he readily credited her for the many roles she filled.
As capable in a boardroom as in a muddy ditch, Channing became a leader in the ski industry. He was a founding member and early president of the Massachusetts Ski Areas Association. In 1969, he and other New England operators co-founded the New England Ski Areas Council, which distributed ski reports to newspapers, radio and television. He served as president of the Eastern Ski Operators Association and received its Sherman Adams Award for his substantial contribution to eastern skiing. In the 1980s, he became Chairman of the National Ski Areas Association and traveled to Washington, D.C., to assist with industry negotiations involving federal agencies. In 2002, he received the NSAA Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary commitment to the organization and ski industry.
Channing also served on the boards of the First Agricultural Bank in Pittsfield and Youth Enrichment Services in Boston. He was a major supporter of Y.E.S., helping bring Boston children to Butternut each weekend to learn to ski and experience the outdoors.
Concerned by inconsistent chairlift safety and inspection practices, Channing joined other Massachusetts ski operators in advocating for the 1968 law that created the Massachusetts Recreational Tramway Board. The board established chairlift operating and licensing requirements under the Department of Public Safety. In 1978, Channing hosted the first Lift Maintenance Seminar at Butternut, a hands-on, three-day program for lift mechanics from across the East Coast. Butternut welcomed hundreds of attendees annually for 30 years, and the seminar continues today at Jiminy Peak.
Channing played as hard as he worked. He competed fiercely in tennis, slalom skiing, cycling and whitewater kayaking and regularly participated in the Josh Billings RunAground Triathlon. Cycling became part of his daily routine. After work, he changed from dirty work clothes into cycling gear and set out on a 25-mile ride. He also raced in events including the Tour of Somerville, Tour of Nutley and Central Park Spring Race Series.
In May 1994, while vacationing in Maine, Channing suffered a devastating bicycle accident. After he failed to return from his afternoon ride, Jane learned he had crashed and was undergoing emergency brain surgery. He remained in a coma for two weeks, and his initial recovery took nearly a year. The traumatic brain injury permanently limited his speech and left lasting impairments.
Those who knew Channing understood that before age 60, he had already lived the lives of three or four men. After the accident, his life changed significantly, but his spirit endured. With help from friends in the Butternut Ski School, he returned to skiing a year later. Though able to speak only a handful of words, he continued to enjoy longtime friendships. He regularly baked Irish soda bread and mailed it to friends around the world and pursued his interests in drawing and photography.
Jane cared for Channing at home for the next 20 years, until a stroke required him to move to Mount Carmel Care Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. As he had throughout his life, he formed meaningful relationships there. The staff cared for him well and came to know both his commanding spirit and his generous heart.
Channing Brown Murdock, 91, passed away peacefully on July 8, 2026, with his two sons by his side.
He is survived by his son Jef Murdock and wife Regina Wenzek; his son Tim Murdock and partner Tanya Beecher; his granddaughters Kira Murdock, Amber Naramore and Serena Naramore; and his niece and nephew, Leslie and Christopher Desmond. He is also survived by sister-in-law Sonya Murdock, niece Marilee Murdock and nephews Rod and Dana Murdock.
