Dadou Mayer’s Celebration of Life to be held in Taos Ski Valley
CHRISTIAN “KRI” MAYER, Dadou’s son and Jean’s nephew, popped into the Taos News last week.
Although Mayer lives in France these days, he is here for a celebration/ memorial of his late father’s life, to be held in Taos Ski Valley this Friday Feb. 10.
Bernard (Dadou) Mayer passed away on Aug. 16, 2022, in Hawaii, but this memorial will be held in Taos Ski Valley, for good reason.
Mayer followed his brother Jean Mayer from the French Alps to the United States to take a job at the Taos Ski Valley in 1958. Jean Mayer, who built the Hotel St. Bernard and was the technical director of the Taos Ski School, died in October 2020.
No sooner had he arrived, Dadou Mayer was promptly fired from his ski instructor job but Taos Ski Valley founder Ernie Blake soon rehired the young racer, who had decamped to work the ski area in Red River.
Mayer then built and ran his own business, the original and much-loved Hotel Edelweiss. In his later years, he divided his time between Taos and Hawaii, where he operated a small coffee plantation.
Dadou Mayer died peacefully in his sleep at his Hawaii home on Aug. 16, 2022. He was 82.
“We’ll begin with an informal onmountain ceremony: around 2:30 p.m. near the entrance to Lower Stauffenberg,” Christian Mayer told Tempo.
The intimate gathering will be followed by a ceremony in the events tent in Taos Ski Valley from 3-6 p.m., officiated by Ted Wiard from the Golden Willow Retreat
There will be live music from 6-7 p.m. featuring: Christof Brownell and the Groove Junkies and Chris Dracup’s Funk of the West Band from 7-10 p.m.
For nostalgia’s sake, Jacques Bessin will be singing some French songs.