He contributed his time to teach many scorers and judges' clinics to encourage others to become officials.

Gary Eugene Pressley born April 6, 1949 grew up in Asheville, North Carolina and began skiing recreationally on Fontana Lake. He met his wife, Rebecca (Becky) Sutton Pressley, in high school and soon she began skiing too. He was introduced to competitive water skiing when he met Harry Spears and Jerry Kirschner. He and Becky joined the Smoky Mountain Water Ski Club and began skiing in tournaments in 1980. They taught both of their daughters, Meredith and Melissa, to ski at a young age. Gary’s personal best was 2 at 35’ off.

The Pressley’s and the Kirschner’s have been skiing at the Camp Grimes Boy Scout Lake for nearly twenty year where they taught many scouts to ski over the years.

Gary contributed so much to the sport of water skiing. He had a passion for the sport and a love for the people. He was a Senior Scorer and a Senior/Pan-Am Judge. He served as the Chief Scorer of the 2003 Water Ski Nationals and in 2007 the Southern Regional’s among other tournaments throughout the years. Also, he was active with the Nautique Big Dawg Slalom Series. Gary served as chairman of the seeding committee for USA Water Ski and served the NC Water Ski Association as a Southern Regional Council Member. He contributed his time to teach many scorers and judges’ clinics to encourage others to become officials. Gary was the go-to guy for scorers in North Carolina and beyond to help set up their tournaments and trouble shoot scoring issues.

In addition to all of his contributions as an official for water ski tournaments, Gary often gave the Sunday morning devotional at tournaments and was blessed to be able to share his love for the Lord with his water ski family.

On November 19, 2011, Gary passed away after battling ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). His presence at water ski tournaments will be greatly missed.