Local news- Press Release
Vail Colorado - Dr Jack Eck to be Recognized as Recipient of the 2024 Vail Trailblazer Award 08 February 2024 ( news )
Vail , state Colorado ( By Press Release office)
Feb 08,2024
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In recognition of his pioneering contributions to the safety and health of Vail’s residents and guests , Dr . Jack Eck has been named the 2024 Town of Vail Trailblazer Award recipient by the Vail Town Council .
The annual Vail Trailblazer Award honors those who contribute their time and talent to make Vail an extraordinary community . Dr . Eck will be formally recognized at the Town of Vail Annual Community Meeting which will be held on March 5 at Donovan Pavilion .
Dr . Eck arrived in Vail in 1971 after having served as a flight surgeon in the Vietnam War . A native of Pennsylvania , he had skied Vail during a medical internship in Denver in the 1960s . He was immediately hired by Vail’s first physician , the late Dr . Tom Steinberg .
By the late 1970s , Dr . Eck became the first Medical Advisor for the Vail Ski Patrol , as well as the first physician to serve on the patrol . He established the basic medical qualification criteria for the ski patrollers , and many of those he trained became the core of the local paramedic community and the Eagle County Ambulance District .
One of Dr . Eck’s innovations was a mobile cardiac program which consisted of a defibrillator in an old Samsonite suitcase . He developed medical first responder techniques that were modeled by ski patrols throughout the U . S . and adopted by the U . S . Ski Team .
In his Vail Trailblazer nomination , Walter Olsen lauded Dr . Eck for training patrollers to perform skills on the mountain that were not yet common , helping to save lives . “He spent many hours ( providing lectures ) and training the ski patrol . Vail Mountain had the first portable defibrillator and cardiac drug kit on a ski mountain in the U . S . thanks to Jack . ”
Dr . Eck was also instrumental in establishing the practice of tracking mountain injury statistics , including the locations of those injuries . This data led to better skier traffic control and improved safety measures in ski mountain management , in addition to safety innovations in ski equipment . Eck was an early medical promoter of ski brakes , which replaced the arguably dangerous safety straps . Dr . Eck continued as Medical Advisor to the Vail Ski Patrol until 2015 .
During this time , he was also an advocate for comprehensive health care options for the entire community . Dr . Eck founded Vail Internal Medicine in 1980 and helped establish a cardiopulmonary program and Vail’s first intensive - care unit ( ICU ) at Vail Valley Medical Center , now Vail Health . In the early 2000s , Vail Internal Medicine merged with a family practice group to form Colorado Mountain Medical .
“Early on , he would do rounds at 6:30 a . m . in the fledging hospital , see office patients all day , and do rounds again in the evening before leaving . There were many 12 to 14 hour days . . . 7 days per week were not uncommon in his practice , ” wrote Olsen .
Alongside Hal and Mary Lou Shaw , Dr . Eck was crucial in the establishment of the Shaw Cancer Center , a state - of - the - art regional cancer center which opened in 2001 . In a surprise celebration in 2007 , he learned that Jack’s Place , the cancer caring house developed as part of the facility , was named in his honor . Jack’s Place provides patients and their families with a short - term , nominal - cost place to stay during their cancer treatment .
“With the international reputation of Vail , Jack ' s vision has helped our community to have the medical facility and staffing to go along with our world class ski mountain . Modern advanced medical facilities ( used to only be ) available in Denver or possibly Grand Junction . His tireless efforts have made this town and Vail Health a leading example of excellence in rural health care . His medical knowledge and performance have saved countless lives in our rural mountain town , ” concluded Olsen in his nomination .
“We are thrilled to honor Dr . Eck’s trailblazing legacy of providing excellent medical care both on mountain and throughout the Vail Valley , ” said current Town of Vail Mayor and Ski Patroller , Travis Coggin . “I have had the pleasure of getting to know Dr . Eck first as a scraped up kid in need of medical care and then as a Ski Patroller learning lifesaving skills . As we looked through the many deserving nominations this year , his name rose to the top for the profound impact he has made locally as well as to Vail’s continued reputation as a health care leader in mountain communities . ”
Dr . Eck was named Vail Valley Foundation Citizen of the Year in 2008 , and was inducted into the Colorado Snowsports Museum Hall of Fame in 2015 . He served as a board member with many organizations such as the Helen and Arthur E . Johnson Depression Center at the University of Colorado , Home Care and Hospice of the Valley , Quality Committee of the Vail Health Board and of the Vail Valley Medical Center . He retired from the Vail Health Foundation in 2020 . He currently serves on the board of Eagle County Paramedic Services .
The Vail Trailblazer Award was established during the town’s 50th birthday celebration in 2016 . Dr . Eck is the ninth recipient to be honored and was selected by a Town Council committee from a number of other commendable nominations .
Dr . Eck’s early life and history in Vail have been documented in the Vail Public Library’s oral history collection available at
www . vaillibrary . com
. To read or listen to this history , go to the Catalog tab and search using the Local Digital Archive drop down .
For more information about the Vail Trailblazer Award and the nomination process , visit
www . vail . gov/trailblazer
.
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