Martin Hollay has been called Tahoe Royalty and he has lived a movie script worthy life for the past 91 years, all captured in the book I was so Lucky:  The Life of Martin Hollay.  However, today, we heard the condense version, from the legend himself, as a special presentation at the Lake Tahoe Museum.  We learned about his life in Hungary, his time in an American Prison camp that made him love the people of his adopted homeland, and his early years at Heavenly Valley, designing ski runs and being Ski Patrol.

In addition to everything Martin accomplished, one of the crafts that he is most famous for is his glove making.  Anyone who was anyone had a pair of Martin Hollay gloves.  He cut them with a press he had shipped from Gloversville, NY (FYI: in 1834, Xavier Jouvin, a French glove maker, invented a press that could cut six gloves simultaneously, bringing down the cost and increasing their popularity and availability).

When Martin decided after 75 years of creating these one-of-a-kind items, he hung up his gloves, so to speak, and donated his beloved press to the museum.  Today was the inauguration of the exhibit to honor him and his place in Tahoe's history.

After meeting Martin, hearing his life story and seeing how many people adore this amazing man, I've discovered that we are the ones who are so lucky!