Adolfo Kind

Adolf respectively Adolfo Kind (1848, Chur – August 1907) was a Swiss chemical engineer and one of the fathers of Italian skiing.

Walser family which had been living in Chur for more than four centuries. When his father was appointed pastor of the Evangelic Church the family went to Milan but they removed to Switzerland at the beginning of the Sardinian War in 1859 where they lived in Graubünden. Afterwards Kind studied chemical engineering in Munich und Zürich and went back to Italy in 1879 where he worked in the direction of a candle and soap company. He started a family and went to Turin in 1890 where he worked in a candle wick company. In turin the family and its friends sparked interests for skies from Glarus. Kind started the import to the city since 1896 and so the Kinds and their friends got the kernel of skiing pioneers in Italy. They were concerned with developing and improving of the ascending and skiing down techniques and inspired an increasing number of skiing fans in the region. Kind, Luciano Roiti, Ottorino Mezzalama and some other friends were members of the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI). On his impulse the Italian alpine club founded the Ski Club Torino in 1901, where he was the first president until 1907, and two further ones in Genoa and Milan.

of the Club Alpino Accademico Italiano (CAAI) which cooperated with the skiing club of Turin since 1904. He met with an accident in a tragical way on the ascent to Piz Bernina in 1907. His son Paolo Kind founded the "Unione Ski Club Italiani" in 1908 which passed into the FISI.