Robert Joel Loane

Robert Joel Loane

Feb 8, 1944 - Jul 15, 2024

Joel Loane passed away peacefully after long illness in his Park City home on July 15th in the arms of his beloved wife Louise. The son of Robert Kenneth Loane and Barbara Welch Berg, Joel grew up in an athletic family in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a child, Joel loved nothing more than being outside, fishing and camping with his family. He spent days restoring vintage cars and playing all sorts of ball sports, following in the cleats of his dad who, for a brief time, played professional baseball. But it was football that turned out to be Joel's scholarship ticket- a talent that took him to Brigham Young University in the early 60s as a starting quarterback.

Following BYU, Joel parlayed his competitive nature and hunger for achievement into running successful sales and marketing teams for tech companies like Honeywell, Litton, and International Telephone, while athletics - skiing, golf and tennis-remained his continual passion. Then one fateful night over dinner, while sidelined with a knee injury, Joel sketched the idea (yes, on a napkin!) for an innovative machine that would help him stay in shape. He had three criteria in mind: 1) it had to be non-impact; 2) it had to build lateral strength and flexibility; and 3) it had to be FUN. The Skier's Edge, the machine, and soon after, the company, was born, and within months was named "The Official Exclusive Supplier to the U.S. Ski Team."

Over the course of the next 40 years and continual design iterations, Skier's Edge took him all over the world as founder and CEO, enabling him to use his language skills in German, French, Norwegian, and Swedish. He not only built the machines that trained Olympians and World Cup Athletes, but built lifelong friendships with great coaches and skiing's biggest characters. He liked skiing fast, driving fast cars, collecting art, spending time with family, and living life to the fullest. Oh - and cats. He loved cats.

But his great late-life love was Louise Kare Hansen, who arrived from Denmark to visit her sister in Park City in 2009 and stayed, having captured his heart. They were married in 2017.

Joel was humble, a hard worker, full of integrity, charismatic, generous, proud, intelligent, and stubborn. He believed in himself and never gave up. The sign that hung over his computer for years was: "Just do it! Fast!"

In addition to his wife Louise and her Danish family, Joel leaves behind a sister, stepbrothers and stepsisters, nieces as well as cousins who all played a very special part in his life.

A celebration of Joel Loane's life will be held in a private ceremony in Park City August 17, 2024 under the care of Starks Funeral Parlor. Please share your condolences, remembrances and photos here on the Stark website at https://www.starksfuneral.com/obituaries