MUSKEGON, MI – Sherman R. Poppen, a man who many winter sports enthusiasts consider the father of modern snowboarding, has died, according to family members.
A Muskegon native, Poppen died Wednesday, July 31, in Griffin, Georgia. He was 89 years old.
Poppen is most known for his invention of the Snurfer, a snowbound mono-ski with a string on the front similar to a toboggan. He created the contraption in his Muskegon home on Christmas Day 1965.
It was built as a simple toy to entertain his young, energetic children, who by all accounts thought it was a hit.
Seeing their joy, Poppen patented the Snurfer a year later, and the rest is history. Soon afterward, residents of Michigan, the nation and eventually the world would take notice of Poppen’s innovative proto snowboard.
Poppen’s legacy as a venerable pioneer of extreme winter sports proceeds him, but in Muskegon, he was known as so much more. The inventor spent much of his life and his fortune helping others through philanthropy and service to his community.
In an interview with SNOW Magazine in 2015, Poppen said that as a young man, he would peer out onto Lake Michigan and wished he could surf.
“On Christmas Day of 1965, I looked at the snow on the dunes behind my house and it dawned on me that we had a permanent wave right there,” Poppen told the magazine.
With two young girls in the house and a third on the way, Poppen was encouraged by his wife Nancy to create something for his kids to do. He grabbed a pair of old skis and fastened them together, which his daughters took and used to slide down the dunes located near their house.
Poppen was pleased, and so was Nancy, who dubbed the board a Snurfer because it looked like their daughters were surfing on snow.
The very first Snurfers are housed in the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The official Snurfer was wider and shorter than a pair of skis, with an anti-skid footrest and a lanyard attached to the front like that of a sled.
It’s impact was indelible, as the Snurfer inspired snowboarding pioneers Jake Burton Carpenter and Tom Sims to modify the design, jump-starting an international phenomenon.
"If Wendy and I were not so obnoxious, we might not have snowboarding,” Laurie Poppen told Muskegon Chronicle in 2012.
In the years before his death, Poppen was known to shred the slopes on snowboards while living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Snowboards aside, Poppen was fascinated with sailboats and skippered two vessels, both named “Helza,” named after the 1940s musical Hellzapoppin’.
That made Poppen a regular fixture at the Muskegon Yacht Club where he would race, drink beer and chat with friends and other sailors.
In 2001, Poppen was inducted into the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame for the creation of the Snurfer. He received the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce Business Hall of Fame Award in 2012.
That same year, a sculpture titled “The Turning Point” was prominently installed in downtown Muskegon to commemorate the invention of the Snurfer and Poppen’s civic contributions.
In celebration, Muskegon Community College opened an exhibition featuring the Snurfer on Dec. 1, 2014. It featured photographs of World Championship Snurfing competitions held in Muskegon from 1968 to 1985, Snurfing memorabilia, clothing and a timeline of events dating back to Snurfing’s origin.
Poppen was born in Muskegon on March 25, 1930. He graduated from Muskegon High School and later attended Northwestern University on a full-ride NROTC Naval Scholarship, graduating with a degree in business.
Poppen served in the U.S Navy as a supply officer on the USS Perry upon graduation.
When he arrived back home, Poppen made a career building Lake Welding Supply Co. in Muskegon into a successful local business. The company was sold to his employees when Poppen decided to retire in the early 1990s.
Poppen had said he was proud that the company would live on to support those who helped make it a financial success, according to an obituary provided to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle by his daughter, Julie Poppen.
“Throughout his life, Poppen was known as a person of high moral and ethical integrity with a sharp mind and wit,” wrote Julie Poppen. “He worked hard and played hard and enjoyed the occasional practical joke.”
In 2012, Lake Welding’s former Supply Controller Greg Teerman told Muskegon Chronicle that Poppen was “a man of integrity.”
“His leadership guided us, but he let us take control over our jobs,” Teerman said. “He was a great mentor.”
Poppen later served on the Norton Shores Planning Commission and was involved with the Muskegon Kiwanis Club.
He and Nancy, who died in 1993, and his second wife, Louise, were dedicated advocates of Muskegon High School and created the school’s Poppen Programs to support low-income students with talents in the arts from kindergarten through college.
He and his sister Leila also founded the Leila and Cyrus Poppen Hospice Residence in Muskegon County’s Fruitport Township in honor of their parents.
Poppen is survived by wife, Louise; daughters Wendy Poppen, of Fort Collins, Colorado; Laurie Poppen and husband Kelly Gorton, of Stony Lake, Michigan; Julie Poppen and husband Dean Pajevic, of Boulder, Colorado; stepson Patrick Kelly and wife Danielle, of Concord, Georgia; sister, Leila Reynolds, of Houston, Texas; and five grandchildren, Nikolai and Erik Poppen-Chambers; Milena Pajevic; and Aaron and Jason Kelly.
The Poppen family also wants to give much gratitude and love to Poppen and Louise’s caretaker Keisha Gordon.
Details on celebrations of his life in Muskegon, Griffin, Georgia, and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, are still pending.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: the Poppen Programs, Inc.; the Harbor Hospice Foundation or a local hospice program; and/or SOS Outreach, a Colorado-based program that brings underserved youth into the mountains to snowboard, ski, camp, and build like skills.