Following her May 2024 passing, “avalanche” is the word that best describes the proliferation of tributes to Tina Lewis, one of Park City’s most beloved transplant daughters. And rightly so. Lewis’s contributions to Park City’s evolution from a has-been silver mining outpost with a few chairlifts to a world-renowned, year-round destination cannot be overstated. But one realm where the “Tina touch” has yet to be recognized is her decades-long participation in this magazine.

Lewis began penning stories for Park City Magazine’s previous iteration, Lodestar, soon after its 1977 launch. Kristen Case, editor from 1997 to 2013, remembers Lewis’s passion for both keeping the old stories alive and offering a long view on current events. “She always came to me with great story ideas,” says Case. “We’d usually turn our editorial brainstorms into delightful lunch dates. I adored her spirit and smarts.”

I was treated to that same generous enthusiasm and institutional knowledge when Kristen retired and I took over as editor from 2013 to 2018. I quickly learned that Tina’s dedication and professionalism was unparalleled. For example, she would spend hours at The Park Record or Park City Museum poring over archives to ensure the accuracy of every word she wrote, pieces that included “The Center of Everything” (Summer/Fall 2015), a beautiful account of how the War Veterans Memorial Building, which now houses The Marquis, served the community from its construction in 1919 to present day, and  “Old Town Steward” (Winter/Spring 2016), a lovingly detailed tribute to the National Garage building, now home to the High West Saloon.

To mark Park City Magazine’s 40th anniversary in 2017, I asked for Tina’s counsel in creating a list of 40 people who had helped nurture the town’s evolution over the past 40 years; a story that was titled, “Moving Mountains.” And so, over a long lunch at Cafe Terigo on a summer afternoon, she filled me in on what I now consider Park City’s sophomore class: the first wave of transplants to relocate here after the town’s mining-based economy officially ended. This gang of visionaries, tirelessly committed to realizing Park City’s potential, included, among many others, Bill Coleman, Jack Johnson, Craig Badami, Bill Kimball, Edgar Stern, Jan Wilking, Bob Wells, and, of course, Tina herself. “Instead of sitting around in the bars after work talking about the runs we skied or trails we rode, we’d talk about how to make Park City better,” Tina told me that day at lunch.   

The last story Tina wrote for Park City Magazine, the Winter/Spring 2024 issue’s “Remembering 40 Years of Sundance,” is a first-person account of the eponymous film festival’s four-decade timeline and is a story that precious few people but Tina could tell. “In 1980,” she wrote, “two directors from what was then called the US Film Festival walked into my office at the Park City Chamber/Bureau and asked if we’d like to have their festival in Park City.” She was, of course, immediately smitten with the idea and proposed a mid-January timing to the chamber board, thinking the fest could bring a needed bump to the lull between the Christmas and Presidents’ Day holidays. I took particular pleasure in the following line Tina included in the piece: “We didn’t mention the blizzards during January and that Parleys Canyon, in those days, was often closed.”
That story and the dozens—if not hundreds—of others Tina authored over the years for Park City Magazine illustrate her unwavering knack for celebrating the past while looking to the future with optimism and joy. “Redford’s gift to Park City, and to us all, has transformed our town and our lives,” the story went on. “It has made us smarter, more tolerant, more joyful, more informed, more connected, and more humane. We are all richer for it. Mr. Redford is right: We all hunger for beautifully told stories.”

Thank you, Tina, for all the well and beautifully told stories you shared and for the always impressive and graceful way you moved through the world. We are, indeed, all richer for it.