photograph
Catalog Number
2019.1.941Description
Black and white photograph of a man on water skis. The photo appears to show Charles R. Sligh, Jr. of the Sligh furniture company. Mr. Sligh was a talented and well known water skier who was a National Champion and was inducted into the National Water Ski Hall of Fame in 1982. Handwritten on the back of the photo it appears to say, "Charles A Sligh, Holland's champion water skier. Holder and winner of many championship water skiing events."History
Charles R. "Chuck" Sligh, Jr. (1906-1997) was born in Grand Rapids, MI on 1-8-1906. He married Charlotte Klumph (1904-1964) in 1926.Chuck purchased his first pair of water skis in 1935. He was water skiing's National Amateur Champion in 1940, followed by National Open Men's Champion in 1941.
He founded the Macatawa Water Ski Club, teaching numerous kids to water ski.
It was ca. 1938 that he co-founded the Charles R. Sligh Company in Holland, MI. In 1940 he co-founded the Sligh-Lowry Furniture Company in Zeeland, MI.
Randall P. "Randy" Vande Water was born in Zeeland, MI on 3-5-1930 to Bill and Kathryn (Kitty Van Ry) Vande Water. The Vande Waters moved to Holland in 1937. He graduated from Holland High School in 1948 and Hope College in 1952.
He edited the Fort Bliss, TX News from 1952-1954 during the Korean conflict and announced the Fourth Army Boxing Tournament on the Armed Forces Radio Network. In 1948 he started announcing The Holland Evening Sentinel local news on WHTC, continuing through his college years.
He spent 4 decades at the Holland Sentinel working as sports editor, city editor, editorial page editor, and managing editor. Randy also authored or co-authored several books on Holland area history.
During those years Vande Water gave numerous illustrated lectures to civic, church and college groups on various subjects relating to the area’s history. He authored a four-volume series of Holland Happenings, Heroes and Hot Shots, Millennium Memories, Holland the Tulip Town, Zeeland, A Walk Through Time, 100 Years of Hope College Basketball, A Century of Heinz Holland, Holland Furnace Co. and the Holland American Band.
Randall (Randy) P. Vande Water, age 88, of Holland, passed away Friday, June 22, 2018.